Brand Community Participation Research Articles

Social influence of the “rational flow” communication model of brand community participation in four-wheeled vehicle companies as a supporting correlation for knowledge exhibitions

This study aims to brand community research by proposing and testing a model of user participation in brand communities. The authors conceptualise three antecedents of brand community participation (e.g., individual, relationship, and group) based on qualitative results and an extensive literature review. The empirical analysis comes from data related to the official car brand community and supports most of the hypotheses. However, several differences emerge between users of official car brands and unofficial dealers regarding the correlation factor in the level of knowledge exhibition. Additionally, critical mass perceptions explain some of the social mechanisms underlying members' decisions to participate in brand communities. Finally, quantile regression analysis extends previous literature by showing that different exchange rules motivate brand users, depending on their level of participation. This paper discusses the managerial implications of these findings as well as some important issues and lines of research.

The bellwether of community: The influence of lead users' characteristics on ordinary users' participation in online brand communities

AbstractThe traditional lead user theory proposes that lead users are an important source of innovation. However, little is known about how lead users influence other users in online brand communities. Based on the uses and gratifications theory, we introduce ordinary user‐perceived benefits—including cognitive benefits, social integrative benefits, personal integrative benefits, and hedonic benefits—as mediators to explain the relationship between lead users' characteristics and ordinary users' participation in an online brand community. Furthermore, we introduce the hosting type of the brand community (consumer‐run vs. company‐managed brand community) and explain its moderating effect on the relationship between lead users' characteristics and ordinary users' participation. The finding reveals that lead users' characteristics have a significant positive effect on ordinary users' participation, and that the effect is partially mediated by cognitive benefits, social integrative benefits, and personal integrative benefits. Besides, the relationship between lead users' characteristics and ordinary users' participation is stronger for consumer‐run brand communities than for company‐managed brand communities.

Research on the Continuous Participation of Virtual Brand Community in Decision-Making Based on Social Influence Theory

Based on the social influence theory, the influence of virtual brand community members’ perceived value on social influencing factors is discussed, and the influence of social influencing factors on virtual brand community members’ continuous participation in decision-making is analyzed. Through an empirical analysis of the survey data of Xiaomi users in the Xiaomi Community, the results showed that the perceived value of virtual brand community members significantly and positively affects social influencing factors, which also significantly and positively affect the members’ continuous participation in virtual brand communities. Therefore, only by sharing valuable information resources and improving the efficiency of information flow, thereby enhancing the perceived value of the community and increasing the stickiness of members to the virtual community, will we have an opportunity to enhance the interaction among members and effectively promote continuous participation in community activities through the strong bonds formed among members.

Does brand community participation lead to early new product adoption? The roles of networking behavior and prior purchase experience.

Consumers' adoption behavior is critical to the success of new products, but the effects of brand communities on new product adoption have rarely been investigated. In this study, we draw on network theory to examine how consumer participation in brand communities (in terms of participation intensity and social networking behaviors) affects the adoption of new products. We collected longitudinal data from 8,296 members of an online community of a well-known smartphone brand to assess the factors influencing new product adoption. The results from applying a hazard model indicated that brand community participation increases the speed of adoption of new products. The positive effect of members' out-degree centrality on new product adoption was found to be significant, but in-degree centrality only had an effect when users had previous purchasing experience. These findings extend the literature by revealing how new products are disseminated across brand communities. The study also makes theoretical and practical contributions to the literature on brand community management and product marketing.

How brand-stakeholder dialogue drives brand-hosted community engagement on social media: A mixed-methods approach

The literature has revealed various antecedents of consumers' participation in an online brand community. But it is still unknown how digital brand-stakeholder dialogue (BSD), a type of communicative interaction on social media, impacts online brand community engagement (OBCE) such as likes, shares, and comments. This study unpacked how BSD affected OBCE on Facebook by revealing the underlying behavioral mechanisms and boundary conditions. Using mixed methods to analyze large-scale Facebook data (N = 75,969), we identified both direct and indirect effects of BSD on OBCE, and the indirect effects were through reciprocal communication, replacement (a community member's response to other members' brand-related questions), and sentiment. We also found that high-BSD brands' posts of higher modality received more positive sentiments. High-BSD brands' posts about products had higher reciprocity. Our findings provide important implications regarding how to maximize the positive effects of dialogue in a social-mediated brand community.

Do Product Characteristics Affect Customers’ Participation in Virtual Brand Communities? An Empirical Study

The virtual brand community has become an important marketing tool for companies. A successful brand community marketing strategy should attract a large number of consumers. Although past studies have revealed consumer motivations for participating in virtual brand communities, they fail to answer an important question: Why is it so easy for some virtual brand communities to attract users while others have such difficulty? In this study, product characteristics are hypothesized to be important factors that determine consumer motivation to participate in brand communities. Product characteristics (e.g., product complexity, product symbolism, and product satisfaction) can directly affect how actively consumers participate in brand communities. The results of questionnaires show that product complexity, product symbolism, and product satisfaction have a positive influence on consumers’ willingness to participate in brand communities. Notably, the duration of product use has a regulating effect on the influence of product satisfaction and product symbolism. A long period of product use weakens the influence of product satisfaction on consumers’ willingness to participate in brand communities. On the contrary, a long period of product use strengthens the influence of product symbolism on consumers’ willingness to participate in brand communities. This study enriches the literature on brand community participation and has implications for companies that aim to utilize brand communities for marketing.

Role of internal brand communities in building a strong

Internal brand Management is a highly researched field with leadership,effective internal and external brand communication and brand-centered human resource management as its proven antecedents (Chang, Chiang, & Han, 2012), and brand commitment, brand knowledge and brand citizenship behaviours as its key consequences (Burmann & Zeplin, 2005; Löhndorf & Diamantopoulos, 2014). The scant research literature pertaining to the role of internal brand communities in the above equation is highly dispersed (P. R. Devasagayam, Buff, Aurand, Judson, & Judson, 2010). In that direction, the study reviews the literature on internal brand management, brand community dynamics and social identity theory and proposes a conceptual model to show the way employee participation in intra-organisational brand communities impacts their brand commitment. This conceptual model gives an innovative yet organic route of building strong corporate brands within the organisations.

Psychological empowerment and user satisfaction: Investigating the influences of online brand community participation

The exponential growth of online brand communities has created a platform where empowered consumers can share knowledge and experiences and participate in community activities. Drawing from psychological empowerment theory, this study proposes a comprehensive framework integrating both social and functional views to investigate the determinants that enhance psychological empowerment and user satisfaction, which consequently influence online brand community participation. By shedding light on the explanatory path routes and highlighting the underexplored and distinctive role of psychological empowerment, this study provides theoretical contributions to illustrate how an enabling environment can be cultivated to drive consumer participation in brand value co-creation.

Announcement: Winner of 2021 Jan-Benedict Steenkamp Award for Long-Term Impact

Announcement: Winner of 2021 Jan-Benedict Steenkamp Award for Long-Term Impact

Effects of online brand communities on millennials' brand loyalty in the fashion industry

AbstractOnline brand communities are gaining traction in the development of marketing strategy, but it is unclear how the dominant group of users, the millennials, is being targeted with the prevailing and varying customer loyalty programs. Grounded in understanding that loyalty is seen and understood differently by people who participate in online brand communities, this study is based on a constructivist perspective combined with hermeneutic methodology and embedded case study research strategy to examine how online brand communities activate multidimensional customer loyalty intentions. Empirical data were generated through 45 in‐depth interviews of millennials. The analysis proposes a framework that categorizes customer loyalty into ambassador loyalists, public‐voting loyalists, loveless loyalists, and mercenary loyalists. Each stream contains one additional subcategory mediated by consumer levels of participation in online brand communities. This study contributes to existing literature. Unlike extant studies, it specifically argues that customers' loyalty intentions in online brand communities depend on the individuals and context, and it categorizes loyalty into different levels. Practical steps by which companies may utilize these categories and theoretical implications for wider consideration are proposed.

Examining How Brand Co-Creation and Virtual Brand Community Affect Brand Commitment

The significance of brand co-creation in virtual brand communities has been recognized in academia and practice. The existing literature has investigated the impact of customer participation in virtual brand community on brand performance and its mechanism, but the prospective impact of types of virtual brand community on types of brand commitment is not examined. Based on the survey of 229 members in virtual brand communities of two popular games of Tencent, this research empirically examines how different types of brand co-creation and virtual brand communities influence brand commitment. This research confirms that customers participating in autonomous brand co-creation in the autonomous virtual brand community have a significantly higher degree of brand experience, and those who participate in both sponsored and autonomous virtual brand community have a comparatively lower degree of brand experience. Meanwhile, sub-brand brand commitment plays the role of mediator between brand experience and corporate brand commitment. Theoretical and managerial implications are offered with limitations and future research.

Brand co-creation through participation of organization, consumers, and suppliers: an empirical validation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically validate the role of different stakeholders in a co-creation context. In this paper, a new triadic brand co-creation concept has been presented highlighting why consumers participate in brand co-creation, what is the role of the organizing company and what is the role of suppliers in such event and what are the benefits each of these three stakeholders receives in-turn of participating in such an event.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative approach has been adopted in this study using structural equation modeling to verify brand co-creation from the triadic stakeholder participation standpoint.FindingsThe empirical study validates that consumer’s perceived psychological benefits, brand self-connection and participation in brand communities all have a positive impact on the brand co-creation process. The results also suggest co-creating organizations should create an environment of trust and openness in such a brand co-creation event and they should show participatory leadership and provide proper tools and training to the participating consumers. The participating suppliers should show higher levels of professionalism, they should be willing to invest in research and development (R&D) and collaborate with organizations in their R&D effort. The results also validate that the brand co-creation event ensures increased brand knowledge and value of consumers. Also, brand co-creation is positively related to purchasing, helping others and consumers’ feedback intention. Through brand co-creation sponsoring organizations creates innovation and reduces resource issues and marketing costs. The results also show that brand co-creation can lead to better brand loyalty among consumers. Suppliers should also be actively engaged in brand co-creation as it leads to a better performance in terms of greater revenue, market offerings and reputation.Research limitations/implicationsThe research investigates all aspects of inputs and benefits of the three different stakeholders – consumers, organizations and suppliers. It gives a comprehensive framework to validate the roles and benefits of each of the stakeholders from a consumer’s viewpoint. It conceptualizes and validates the constructs to provide the holistic concept and its associated framework.Practical implicationsThe findings offer new insights to brand managers, Chief Experience Officers of how a brand co-creation event can be organized successfully, what should be the role of them, how they should involve suppliers in this kind of an event and finally how this kind of event can have a long-term impact on the brand in question.Originality/valueThis is the first empirical research on brand co-creation which investigates the roles and benefits from a triadic stakeholders’ standpoint. This study also analyzes and validates the comprehensive framework of brand co-creation proposed.

On the relationship between online brand community and brand preference in political market

Seeing the rising growth of online brand communities, an increasing number of political parties are investing time, money, and resources into designing and managing online brand communities to gain voters’ attention. Although online brand communities have been recognized as a powerful relationship-building medium, there is a limited study of online political brand community impact in shaping voter behavior. This study has examined relationships among electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) about a political brand, online political brand community participation, online political brand community commitment, political brand love, and political brand trust in voters’ political brand preferences. The result shows that eWOM about a political brand significantly influence online political brand community participation. Participation strength in online brand communities increases community commitment. The enhanced awareness and knowledge motivate members toward a higher level of preference for the political brand. Political brand love and brand trust mediates the relationship between the brand community and brand preference. The findings may help political marketers understand the role of online political brand communities in shaping voters’ party brand preference and resultant voting behavior. It may further help political marketers to strategize their brand community pages for a better outcome.

Take the pressure down: investigating the influence of peer pressure on participation desire in child-oriented brand communities

ABSTRACT Given the connectedness modern technology provides for communication, peer pressure is becoming more prevalent amongst children, with children often pressured into using certain brands by their peers. Australian children participated in one of three experimental studies to assess the impact of peer pressure, fear of social exclusion, and age on brand community participation desire. Peer pressure had a significant effect on participation desire through influencing fear of social exclusion; however, the effect was dependent upon the child’s age. Children between six and 11 years were likely to participate due to peer pressure, with the effect attenuating for older children. This research presents useful insights for parents, academics, and practitioners regarding child-oriented brand communities and the implications of participation for young children. Brands can benefit from an understanding of how young consumers come to engage in brand communities so that monitoring efforts can be developed as safeguards for children and brands.

Brand community integration, participation and commitment: A comparison between consumer-run and company-managed communities

In the past two decades there has been a growth in the rate at which consumers join, companies use, and researchers study brand communities. Given the expansion of brand communities, scholars insistently analyze why individuals join and stay in them. However, no study concurrently examines the links among the members’ integration, participation and commitment to a brand community. Furthermore, research conceive brand communities as homogenous. Whether the feelings and behaviors of members of different kinds of communities, and specifically consumer-run and company-managed brand communities, are comparable is unknown. Using a sample of 2167 consumers of a leading motorcycle brand, this study examines the members’ integration, participation and commitment to consumer-run and company-managed communities. The findings reveal that consumer-run communities stimulate higher levels of integration, participation and commitment than the company-managed communities, but that the mechanisms connecting integration, participation and commitment are invariant across the two types of community.

Consumer Engagement in Online Brand Communities: Community Values, Brand Symbolism and Social Strategies

Aim/Purpose: This study examines the kind of community value companies should provide when strengthening the relationship between customers and brands through the establishment of an online brand community, and how this kind of community value promotes customers’ sense of community engagement and willingness to spread brand reputation. The paper also discusses how an enterprise’s brand symbolism affects the relationship between community value and customers’ engagement in online brand community. This study explored the important role of brand symbolism in the establishment of an online brand community. Background: Many companies want to create online brand communities to strengthen their relationships with consumers as well as to provide better service and value to consumers, for example, Huawei’s Huafen community (club.huawei.com), Apple’s support community (support.apple.com/zh-cn), and Samsung’s Galaxy community (samsungmembers.cn). However, these brand communities may have different interests and consumer engagement about the kind of community value to offer to their customers. Methodology: This study uses data collection from questionnaire surveys to design a quantitative research method. An online questionnaire survey of mobile phone users in China was conducted to collect data on social value, cognitive value, brand symbolism, customer community engagement, and brand recommendation. The brands of mobile phone include Apple, Huawei, Samsung, OPPO, VIVO, MI, and Meizu. The researcher purchased a sample service of WJX, an online survey company (www.wjx.cn), and WJX company distributed the questionnaire to research participants. The WJX company randomly selected 240 subjects from their sample database and then sent the questionnaire link to research participants’ mobile phones. Among the 240 research participants, the researcher excluded participants who lacked online brand community experience or had invalid data to qualify for data collection. After the researcher excluded participants who did not qualify for data collection, only 203 qualified questionnaire surveys advanced to the data collection and analysis phase, which was the questionnaire recovery rate of 84.58%. For the model analysis and hypotheses testing, the researcher used statistical software IBM SPSS Statistics and AMOS 21 and Smartpls3. Contribution: This study deepens the body of literature knowledge by combining online brand community value and brand symbolic value to explore issues that companies should consider when establishing an online brand community for their products and services. This study confirms that brands with high symbolic value establish communities and strengthen social values in the online brand community rather than reducing brand symbolism. Online brand community involves a horizontal interaction (peer interaction) among peers, which can have an effect on the symbolic value of brand (social distance). Findings: First, online brand community value (both cognitive and social value) has a positive impact on customer community engagement. Second, customer community engagement has a positive impact on customers’ brand recommend intention. Third, the customer community engagement is a mediator between the online brand community value and the customer brand recommend intention. Most importantly, fourth, the symbolic value of the brand controls the relationship between community value and customer community engagement. For brands with high symbolic value, the community value should emphasize cognitive value rather than social value. For brands with a low symbolic value, the community provides cognitive or social value, which is not affected by the symbolism of the brand. Recommendations for Practitioners: Practitioners can share best practices with the corporate sectors. Brand owners can work with researchers to explore the characteristics of their online brand communities. On this basis, brand owners and researchers can jointly build and manage online brand communities. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can explore different perspectives and factors of brand symbolism that involve brand owners when establishing an online brand community to advance consumer engagement, community value, and brand symbolism. Impact on Society: Online brand community is relevant for brand owners to establish brand symbolism, community value, and customer engagement. Readers of this paper can gain an understanding that cognitive and social values are two important drivers of individual participation in online brand communities. The discussion of these two factors can give readers and brand owners the perception to gain more understanding on social and behavior activities in online brand communities. Future Research: Practitioners and researchers could follow-up in the future with a study to provide more understanding and updated research information from different perspectives of research samples and hypotheses on online brand community.

Impact of Brand Community Participation on Brand Equity Dimension in Luxury Apparel Industry - A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Impact of Brand Community Participation on Brand Equity Dimension in Luxury Apparel Industry - A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

The Role of Self-congruence on Consumers’ Participation in Online Brand Communities

Amaç: İşletmeler gün geçtikçe tüketiciler ile daha iyi bir iletişim sağlayabilmek amacıyla marka topluluklarına özellikle de online marka topluluklarına daha çok önem vermektedir. İlişkisel pazarlama anlayışı ile birlikte başarılı işletmeler marka topluluklarını, hem mevcut hem de potansiyel müşteriler ile uzun dönemli ilişki kurmak için kullanmaktadır. İlişkisel pazarlama, tüketici katılımı ve marka ilişkileri konusunda işletme ile tüketici etkileşimin daha iyi anlaşılmasını sağlamaktadır. İşletmeler açısından marka topluluklarına tüketicilerin katılımlarını sağlanması oldukça önemlidir. Aynı zamanda işletmelerin, tüketici katılımını etkileyen faktörleri tespit edebilmeleri, pazarı anlayabilmek adına stratejik bir önem taşımaktadır. Literatürde tüketici katılımını etkileyen pek çok faktör araştırmacılar tarafından ele alınmıştır. Ancak son yıllarda pazarlama alanında gittikçe daha çok konuşulan öz benlik uyumunun etkisi incelenmemiştir. Tüketicilerin, gerçekte kendilerini nasıl gördükleri şeklinde tanımlanan öz benlik, satın alma tercihlerinde kendileri ile uyumlu markalara yönelmelerine neden olmaktadır. Öz benlik uyumu ise kişinin kendisini nasıl gördüğü ile işletmenin imajı arasında algılamış olduğu benzerliktir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, öz benlik uyumunun tüketicilerin online marka topluluklarına katılımları üzerindeki etkisini araştırmaktır. Yöntem Bu amaçla nicel araştırma yöntemi benimsenmiştir. Kolayda örnekleme yöntemi ile ulaşılan 283 katılımcıdan anket formları aracılığı ile veriler elde edilmiştir. Ölçümlerin geçerlilik-güvenilirlik analizlerinin yapılması için SPSS ve Lisrel programları kullanılarak açıklayıcı ve doğrulayıcı faktör analizleri uygulanmıştır. Daha sonra araştırma model ve hipotezlerinin test edilebilmesi için veriler yapısal eşitlik modeli ile analizi edilmiştir.Bulgular Analiz sonucunda öz benlik uyumunun, yardım alma ve marka tutkusu ile katılımı olumlu yönde etkilediği sonucuna varılmıştır. Ayrıca, yardım alma katılımı; hazcı ve faydacı katılımı, marka tutkusu amaçlı katılım ise hazcı katılımı olumlu yönde etkilemiştir.Sonuç Yapılan bu çalışmanın pazarlama literatürüne iki temel katkısı vardır. İlki öz benlik uyumunun tüketicilerin online marka topluluklarına katılımları üzerinde etkili olduğu sonucudur. İşletmeler açısından oldukça önemli olan bu sonuç göstermektedir ki, tüketiciler kendi öz benlikleri ile uyumlu algıladıkları markaların online marka topluluklarına katılım göstermektedir. Bu da işletmelerin pazarlama stratejilerini belirlerken, hedef kitlelerinin öz benliklerini incelemeleri ve bu uyumun algılamasını daha da artıracak faktörlerin üzerinde düşünmesi gerektiğidir. Çalışmanın ikinci katkısı ise Baldus vd. (2015)’nin sunduğu dört temel katılımın kendi aralarında da neden-sonuç ilişkilerine sahip oldukları ve yazarların belirtmiş olduğu gibi online marka topluluklarına katılım üzerinde aynı düzeyde etkili olmadıkları sonucudur.

Three-Dimensional Brand Loyalty and Virtual Customer Relationships on Social Media-Based Brand Community

The aim of this research was to investigate how to manage digital consumer relationships (i.e. Customer-centric model) on social media brand community and to influence three-dimensional brand loyalty (i.e. cognitive, affective, and behavioral loyalty). This study depicts how different factors and building blocks of these online brand communities interact and influence brand community participation, and brand loyalty. The results of this research indicated that all these four consumer relationships can enhance brand loyalty by improving brand community participation. The finding will help marketers and brands may make marketing plans to influence any kind of unsatisfactory situations. This study is one of the first to investigates how to manage consumer relationships on social media through brand community participation.

How psychological ownership stimulates participation in online brand communities? The moderating role of member type

Participation in online brand communities (OBCs) is critical for the success of the community and the owner firm. Author attempts to explore this core OBC activity on the premises of psychological ownership theory by modeling participation intentions as a function of the members' sense of individual psychological ownership (IPO) and collective psychological ownership (CPO) experienced in the community.Data collected through online surveys from 763 members of the firm created OBCs and analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that IPO and CPO sensed by the members positively influence their participation intentions, that further influences members' brand purchase intentions and positive word of mouth (WOM) about the community. The multi-group SEM analysis reveals interesting differences in the structural paths as observed for ‘active members’ and ‘lurkers’ group, supporting the moderating role of member type. The study contributes to the existing theory as well as practices on members' participation in OBCs.