Online Brand Communities Research Articles

The Effect of Cross-Cultural Dimensions on the Manifestation of Customer Engagement Behaviors

Today's technology-enabled customer with instant access to a global marketplace has led to firms facing intense competition from around the world. As a result, customer engagement has emerged as an important marketing strategy and for more than a decade has fueled intense attention from academe and professionals. However, despite this focus, there is a paucity of research considering customer engagement in a cross-cultural context. This exploratory study provides empirical clarification as to whether culture at a national level impacts the manifestation of specific customer engagement behaviors exhibited by customers engaged with a brand. A conceptualization of customer engagement behaviors according to Hofstede's six dimensions of culture is presented, and a netnographic study focusing on an online brand community reveals that while national culture exerts no impact on the behaviors of engaged customers, the culture associated with a brand does. These findings serve as a foundation for future academic inquiry and present the opportunity for managers to foster and nurture a brand culture that encourages customer engagement.

Transitional space and new forms of value co-creation in online brand communities

Drawing on a netnographic study and in-depth interviews within the online Greek Football Manager community, this paper explores the specific role of reality and fantasy in generating and sustaining brand value co-creation. Inspired by Winnicott’s psychoanalytic theory, this study illustrates how value co-creation occurs in-between reality and fantasy and unfolds via the complex interplay of real and fantasy-oriented resources which are largely situated in transitional space, that is the intermediate space of experience between shared reality and individual fantasy, and is facilitated by various transitional objects. The findings further highlight that members engage in a series of voluntary work activities while navigating themselves between the everyday shared reality of the real football word and the individual fantasy of their gaming experiences. This study puts forth a novel theoretical framework of value co-creation in transitional space within the context of online brand communities and draws theoretical and practical implications for future research.

Role of brand engagement and co-creation experience in online brand community continuance: A service-dominant logic perspective

Value creation and acquisition are pivotal for continuous participation in online communities and thus have become goals that brand companies strive to develop in online brand communities (OBCs). Prior studies, however, predominately adopted the goods-dominant logic to assess the role of OBC members’ value perceptions in their value experiences. Such an approach overlooks the fact that one's value experiences in OBCs manifest in the co-creation with the brand and with other OBC members, benefiting from technology platforms and one's community motives. We thus draw on the service-dominant logic to formulate a research model with seven research hypotheses. These hypotheses depict relationships among five research constructs, in which (1) OBC continuance intention serves as the ultimate dependent variable, (2) brand engagement and co-creation experience represent OBC members’ value experiences in consumer-to-brand and consumer-to-consumer interactions, respectively, and (3) social media affordances and members’ OBC identification serve as the antecedents of OBC members’ value experiences. We used the Amazon MTurk platform to collect 246 valid samples worldwide that represent general OBC members. We adopted PLS-SEM to assess the measurement model and test the proposed hypotheses. Our findings indicate that co-creation experience and brand engagement are pivotal value experiences that can increase OBC continuance intention. In addition, social media affordances and OBC identification are instrumental to both value experiences through their facilitation of technology-mediated and communal interactions for resource integration and service exchange among OBC members and the brand. This study sheds light on OBC research by identifying the central role of brand engagement and co-creation experience in OBC continuance. We also discuss theoretical and practical implications and provide future research suggestions.

Enhancing Sustainable Cosmetics Brand Purchase: A Comprehensive Approach Based on the SOR Model and the Triple Bottom Line

Profitable and dynamic, the cosmetics industry strives to conform to the environmental ideals and practices of the 21st century. For years, NGOs, the media, and consumers have accused cosmetics brands of pollution, environmental disasters, and safety concerns. These allegations can spread faster in the online environment and cause genuine brand crises. Many cosmetic company managers continue to assess the necessity of accelerating their business toward sustainability initiatives and being more consumer centric. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the impact of economic, social, and environmental sustainability on brand attachment and brand attractiveness, which may result in a positive WOM, enhance purchase intention, and finally lead to the intention to join online brand communities. To implement the research scope, the authors developed a conceptual model based on the triple bottom line (TBL) and the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) approach. To assess the conceptual model, the authors have conducted quantitative research, through an online questionnaire, with data being collected from consumers via an online survey platform. The snowball sample comprised 1632 valid responses from consumers of sustainable cosmetics brands. Further on, the conceptual model was assessed employing structural equations modelling via SmartPLS. The results confirm the impact of the three pillars of TBL (i.e., economic, social, and environmental sustainability) (stimuli) on brand attachment and brand attractiveness (organism), which finally generates positive WOM, triggers purchase intention, and enhances consumers’ intention to join an online brand community (response). From a theoretical perspective, our research contributes to extending knowledge based on the SOR approach and TBL applied to sustainable cosmetics brands. Considering the significant effects of economic, social, and environmental sustainability on consumer perception and intention, the study also pinpoints some major management implications for the cosmetic industry.

Effects of online brand community rituals on customer citizenship behavior: exploring the sequential mediation mechanism

PurposeFew extant studies have focused on digital rituals and investigated the relationship between them and customer citizenship behavior in the context of online brand communities (OBCs). This study aims to examine the sequential mediation mechanism of emotional energy and spiritual brand identification under interaction ritual theory and identifies membership prototypicality as the moderator.Design/methodology/approachAn online investigation of 515 OBC users was conducted to gather data, and structural equation modeling was applied to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe empirical results revealed that OBC rituals were positively related to customer citizenship behavior. Emotional energy and spiritual brand identification could play mediating roles in the relationship between OBC rituals and customer citizenship behavior. Furthermore, there existed a sequential mediation mechanism with emotional energy as the first mediator and spiritual brand identification as the second. The effect of OBC rituals on emotional energy was more significant for peripheral members than prototypical members.Practical implicationsManagers of OBCs should conduct various ritualistic strategies to stimulate users to perform customer citizenship behaviors. Discrete ritualized activities should be intended for members of different prototypicalities.Originality/valueThis study provides a profound insight on how OBC rituals foster customer citizenship behavior and is among the first to explore such a relationship. It also investigates the sequential mediation mechanism, thus broadening the research on the influencing processes of OBC rituals on customer citizenship behavior.

The Hidden Value of Brand Communities for Strategic Communication: A Qualitative Study of Motorcycle Companies in Portugal

ABSTRACT The high competitiveness of the corporate sector requires a strategic communication approach to bring brands closer to consumers. In this context, brand communities (BCs) can be an interesting asset for brands. This article uses the example of motorcycle brands to analyze how BCs on social media can enhance the strategic dimension of brand communication. For this purpose, nine company representatives were interviewed, who represented 16 motorcycle brands. The data were examined using qualitative content analysis. Overall, the results suggest that motorcycle brand communication is increasingly digital and does not explicitly recognize BCs as a strategic target. However, several advantages are ascribed to approaching BCs as part of a communication strategy (e.g., stimulating brand loyalty or brand satisfaction) and to interacting with BCs as social groups (e.g., encouraging feelings of belongingness or sharing of information). Concerning online BCs, the results show that managers perceived using social applications as beneficial, increasing brand promotion, saving time, and improving communication. These findings could inspire companies to make the best of BCs and develop new and relevant communication strategies through online apps that will increase brand satisfaction and, consequently, brand profits.

Love the star, love the team? The spillover effect of athlete sub brand to team brand advocacy in online brand communities

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the antecedents of brand passion and brand community commitment, namely, self-congruity and athlete attraction, as well as their effects on online brand advocacy in online brand communities.Design/methodology/approachThe sample comprises members of a Facebook football fan club brand community. An online survey measuring athlete-level factors, team-level factors and online brand advocacy provides data to test the conceptual framework using structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe findings of this paper support the positive spillover effect from athlete subbrand to team brand advocacy, as self-congruity exerted positive effects on brand passion and brand community commitment, while athlete attraction influenced brand community commitment, leading to online brand advocacy.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings validate the dimensions of online brand advocacy and advance research on sports brand hierarchy in brand architecture by establishing the transference effect from athlete to the team brand.Practical implicationsTo effectively manage their brands online, brand managers need to pay attention to the powerful and multifaceted tool of online brand advocacy. Brand managers can capitalize on their active advocates by working closely with them to co-create uplifting and authentic brand stories that are worthwhile for sharing, especially in times of crisis.Originality/valueBuilding on the developmental trajectory of brand love and vicarious brand experience, the findings verify the directionality of the spillover effect and offer insights into the development of brand advocacy across different brand levels.

The impact of oppositional loyalty on brand identification in online brand communities: the moderating role of self-expression

The impact of oppositional loyalty on brand identification in online brand communities: the moderating role of self-expression

The analysis of dynamic emotional contagion in online brand community.

Online brand communities (OBCs) could benefit firms in many usages, ranging from collecting consumers’ suggestions or advice to interacting with community members directly and transparently. Creating a positive emotional atmosphere is essential for such communities’ healthy development as its boosts the continuous involvement of each member. However, the dynamic cross-influences and evolution of emotions in OBCs have not been fully explored, which was the research gap this paper tried to fill. Based on emotional contagion theory, this study identifies three sources of textual sentiment through machine learning methods in OBCs: member’s posts, other members’ feedback, and the focal firm’s official feedback. This study further tested the dynamic emotional contagion process among these sources on valence (mean) and volatility (dispersion), namely how they affected each other. Data was collected from the MIUI forum, a large forum launched by Xiaomi corporate on August 1, 2011, which contained 17,622 posts and 99,426 feedback. Results showed that: (1) in the emotional contagion process, there existed differences in the influence of emotional valence and volatility from different sources; (2) all emotional interactions were temporary and mostly lasted no more than three days; (3) the most significant contributor of each sources’ emotion was itself, which could be explained by lagged effect; (4) the valence of focal firm’s emotion (focal firm’s official feedback) was the second contributor of the valence of member’s emotion (member’s posts) and other members’ emotion (other members’ feedback). Three sources of emotion in OBCs and emotional valence/volatility should be considered when firms try to guide the emotional changes in such communities. Furthermore, firms could proactively influence members’ emotions by carefully designing the feedback to members’ posts. Besides, since all interactions are temporary, firms need to engage in online communities frequently, like consistently offering feedback.

Customer engagement and sharing behaviors: Toward a contingent curvilinear perspective

There is growing recognition of a linear relationship between customer engagement (CE) and sharing behavior intention (SBI) within firm-hosted online brand communities (OBCs) in social media. This study examines a negative quadratic nonlinear relationship among consumers of OBCs on Facebook brand pages in the United States, in which higher CE levels have a detrimental effect on SBI. Two moderators (perceived OBC interactivity and perceived OBC innovativeness) are considered to mitigate this effect. Hierarchical regression modelling tests a theoretical framework with data from 595 users of OBCs on Facebook. Results confirm a negative quadratic curvilinear relationship between CE and SBI and that perceived OBC innovativeness and perceived OBC interactivity mitigates the curvilinear effect. The results provide insights into the curvilinear effects of CE in firm hosted OBCs. These findings inform the optimization of digital content marketing activities to enhance sharing behaviors amongst actors to maintain a vibrant OBC in social media.

Customer Purchase Intention in Online Green Product Brand Community

Due to the increasing awareness of people's environment in choosing a product, resulting in high competition in green product industry. The impact of this phenomenon is also faced by early-stage start-ups in the green product industry, which has limited funds and resources. Seeing this problem, there is one strategy that has a high potential to increase customer purchase intention and provide good performance in increasing traction and product/service purchase in many large companies, namely a brand community that can be formed in online brand community (OBC). Although there are many benefits offered by Online brand community (OBC), unfortunately, there are still few green product brands that implement OBC in Indonesia. Thus, there are hardly any benchmarking models for the application of OBC, and comprehensive research on how the purchase intention in an OBC is unheld. To be able to fill the information gap and explain purchase intention in an OBC meticulously, previous research said that customer motivation and satisfaction are related to purchase intention. Therefore, this research will also look for the customers' motivation to participate in OBC to be able to identify motivation fulfilment and known as satisfaction on OBC. The satisfaction of OBC will bring this research to be able to pinpoint customer purchase intention. This research will be conducted using a qualitative method (case study strategy in two green product OBCs in Indonesia) with semi-structured interviews with informants that have different levels of participation in OBC. From the results of data analysis obtained, it can be identified 14 customer motivations to participate in green product OBC such as information need, relatability, social integrative need, etc. It can be concluded that the fulfilment of those motivations are reflecting the level of satisfaction on OBC and also has a significant effect on purchase intention in green products industry.

The Influence of Online Brand Community Identity and Trust on Sustainable Customer Loyalty

Based on Social Identity Theory and Trust Theory, this paper discusses the impact of online brand community identity and trust on customer engagement, as well as the impact of customer engagement on customer loyalty. The results show that the two community factors have a significant impact on customer engagement, and customer engagement has a positive correlation with customer loyalty. These results reflect that online brand community identity and trust have positive impact on customer engagement, which increases the motivation of customers to participate in community activities, when customers obtain greater satisfaction and perceived benefits from community activities, the satisfaction and perceived benefits can be transformed into customers' sustainable stickiness and loyalty to the brands. In addition, customer engagement plays a partial intermediary role between online brand community identity, trust and customer loyalty. The results of this study are helpful to improve the management of online brand community, provide companies with ideas to improve business model, innovation, and bring new experience and value to companies and customers.

Promoting customer value co-creation through social capital in online brand communities: The mediating role of member inspiration

This study aims to investigate how social capital can promote customer value co-creation behavior in Online Brand Communities (OBCs). It further explores the mediating role of member inspiration and two moderating variables (perceived visible heterogeneity and perceived value homogeneity) on this process. The study employs Structural equation modeling with a sample of 502 OBC respondents to test the proposed model. Our results demonstrate that social capital influences customer value co-creation behavior directly and indirectly through member inspiration. Furthermore, both perceived visible heterogeneity and perceived value homogeneity positively moderate the relationship between social capital and customer value co-creation behavior. The findings offer practical insights for brand managers in effectively cultivating social capital to promote customer value co-creation behavior by stimulating member inspiration. This study extends past value co-creation research in OBCs through social capital lens. Also, it shows the consumer psychological process by which social capital potentially promote value co-creation through member inspiration. Lastly, it highlights the moderating effects of visible heterogeneity and value homogeneity on the association between social capital and member inspiration.

Online Brand Community User Segments: A Text Mining Approach.

There is a trend that customers increasingly join the online brand community. However, evidence shows that there are nuances between different user segments, and only a small group of users are active. Thus, one key concern marketers face is identifying and targeting specific segments and decreasing user churn rates in an online environment. To this end, this study aims to propose a UGC-based segmentation of online brand community users, identify the characteristics of each segment, and consequently reduce online brand community users' churn rate. We used python to obtain users' post data from a well-known online brand community in China between July 2012 and December 2019, resulting in 912,452 posts and 20,493 users. We then use text mining and clustering methods to segment the users and compare the differences between the segments. Three groups—information-oriented users, entertainment-oriented users, and multi-motivation users—were emerged. Our results imply that entertainment-oriented users were the most active, yet, multi-directional users have the lowest probability of churn, with a churn rate of only 0.607 times than that of users who focus either on information or entertainment. Implications for marketing and future research opportunities are discussed.

Online Brand Community Components in Gadgets Industry, Thailand

Current global businesses focus on interacting with customers by creating an online brand community to create market venues to be more successful. However, creating a venue for brands comes with a high challenge in terms of managing the media and the activities to be unique and draw in more customers. This research aims to study and confirm the online brand community components in gadget products, which are the products that many people talk about and exchange their experiences in terms of the brands. To understand the major component of creating an online community, the researcher collected the data using an online questionnaire with 400 people who had purchased electronic accessories or gadgets through an e-commerce channel. The result from the analysis of the confirmation components revealed that the online brand communities consist of three following components: the feeling of inclusiveness within the communities, shared norms and traditions, and the feeling of responsibility towards the communities.

The Research of “Products Rapidly Attracting Users” Based on the Fully Integrated Link Prediction Algorithm

One of the main problems encountered by social networks is the cold start problem. The term “cold start problem” refers to the difficulty in predicting new users’ friendships due to the limited number of links those users have with existing nodes. To fill the gap, this paper proposes a Fully Integrated Link Prediction Algorithm (FILPA) that describes the social distance of nodes by using “betweenness centrality,” and develops a Social Distance Index (SDI) based on micro- and macro-network structure according to social distance. With the aim of constructing adaptive SDIs that are suitable for the characteristics of a network, a naive Bayes (NB) method is firstly adopted to select appropriate SDIs according to the density and social distance characteristics of common neighbors in the local network. To avoid the risk of algorithm accuracy reduction caused by blind combination of SDIs, the AdaBoost meta-learning strategy is applied to develop a Fully Integrated Social Distance Index (FISDI) composed of the best SDIs screened by NB. The possible friendships among nodes will then be comprehensively presented using high performance FISDI. Finally, in order to realize the “products rapidly attracting users” in new user marketing, FILPA is used to predict the possible friendship between new users in an online brand community and others in different product circles.

COVID-19 상황하에서 온라인 브랜드 커뮤니티 유형별 서비스 품질 결정요인이 사용자 만족도에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of an online operation model of a company according to COVID-19, pay attention to the development and operation of an online brand community, and analyze each strength through surveys on the types of online brand communities of three companies. Finally, we attempt to provide meaningful implications for companies seeking to develop an online brand community during the epidemic. Information was collected and analyzed for famous online brand communities at home and abroad, and exploratory factor analysis was conducted to verify tartanity and efficiency. Second, it is the result of tartanism and exploratory factors. Finally, the validity of this method was verified through a validation investigation, and the hypothesis was empirically verified after comparing the relevant values with the extracted data. Consumer satisfaction determinants of brand service quality by online brand (consumer-centered, corporate-operated, and third-party company-opened) have a positive effect. Six items of formability, reliability, responsiveness, interaction, information provision type, and stability are analyzed and assumed to be the determinants that have the greatest influence. This paper analyzed the determinants that influence the large model among the determinants of brand service quality by online brand community type. It provides useful references and data for the operation of a company’s online brand community.

Intention to repurchase after a data leak on Tokopedia: Mediated by consumer forgiveness

During a brand crisis, this research investigates the impact of brand super-recovery efforts and online brand community engagement (OBCE) on repurchase intention as mediated by consumer forgiveness. The data for this quantitative study was gathered from members of the Tokopedia community in Central Java. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling is the analytical technique used (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that brand super-recovery efforts and online brand community engagement (OBCE) influence repurchase intention directly or indirectly via the mediating variable of consumer forgiveness. The results indicate that when a brand crisis occurs, the presence of a brand super-recovery effort, online brand community engagement (OBCE), and consumer forgiveness can reduce the negative impact of a brand crisis and encourage customers to repurchase. This research results have significant implications for theory and practice.

Love Is Blind! Exploring the Impact of Brand Love on eWOM in Chinese Hospitality Industry.

The rising penetration and value of online information reviews in the hospitality industry have been extensively examined. People are increasingly interacting on interactive online media, prompting firms to create online communities to share electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) with them and with one another in order to increase brand love. This study seeks to discover what drives consumers to participate in these online brand communities. To examine the research model, an online survey was conducted on 508 consumers who had shared eWOM on social networking sites (SNS). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test all hypotheses. The findings show that each of the variables has a high impact on brand love, with information quality and virtual interaction having the most significant impact. As a result of brand love, eWOM is significantly increased. Additionally, findings show that the gender gap in the online setting is increasing, as the influence of all characteristics then reward of online brand communities on brand love was adaptable among both male and female associates. Considering the effects of online features (information quality, system quality, virtual interaction, and reward) on online brand communities' impact on brand love and eWOM. Online hotels manager is advised to carefully develop their marketing strategies to retain and attract new consumers. Furthermore, online hotels manager can use the findings from this study to understand the consequences when eWOM is strongly influenced by online brand communities' features. This study is one of the first to illustrate and empirically confirm insight into how online features affect brand lovers in online brand communities. The study adds to the body of knowledge concerning the effectiveness of social media marketing in the Chinese hotel sector.

Enhancing participation intentions in online brand communities

PurposeThis study conceptualizes and validates a model of participation intentions in online brand communities by including perceived brand authenticity and consumer-brand relationship as its antecedents.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from different online brand communities' members. In total, 465 responses were analyzed through structural equation modeling.FindingsThe study's findings establish that the continuity, credibility, and integrity dimensions of perceived brand authenticity significantly strengthen the consumer-brand relationship, which ultimately influences the consumers' participation intentions in online brand communities.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should examine the applicability of the proposed model to the customer-created online brand communities. Consumer participation intentions may be compared across product categories.Originality/valueThe findings contribute to the emerging and important area in marketing by highlighting the importance of brand authenticity and consumer-brand relationship in developing an urge to participate in online brand communities.