Virtual Brand Research Articles

Extending lead-user theory to a virtual brand community: the roles of flow experience and trust

With the growing popularity of consumer participation in product innovation in online brand community, this research aims to integrate the concepts of flow experience and variance of trust to explore the effects of these two factors on the relationship between lead userness and innovative behavior in an online context. Survey data from the Xiaomi Company’s virtual brand community show that lead userness has a positive impact on flow experience and, in turn, on innovative behavior. In addition, flow experience mediates the relationship between lead userness and innovative behavior when trust in a virtual brand community is high rather than low.

The role of brand community identification and reward on consumer brand engagement and brand loyalty in virtual brand communities

With the advent of interactive Web 2.0 (and beyond) technologies, the role of consumer brand engagement (CBE), which focuses on the consumer’s investment in their brand interactions, is of rapidly growing importance. Despite growing recognition of CBE’s importance in virtual brand communities, empirically-derived insight into its drivers, dynamics, and outcomes remains limited, as investigated in this study. Responding to this gap, we explore the effect of consumers’ brand community identification and reward on CBE, which we posit to subsequently affect brand loyalty. To investigate our hypotheses, we conducted a survey with 602 Facebook users. Our structural equation modeling results reveal brand community identification’s and reward’s positive effect on CBE, and a positive effect of CBE on brand loyalty. In addition, our findings reveal CBE’s partial mediating effect in the association of brand community identification and reward with brand loyalty. Theoretically, our findings further insight into CBE’s virtual community-based dynamics, with a focus on the role of community identification and reward. Practically, our results identify the key role of nurturing virtual community identification and the offering of reward to engage consumers.

The impact of advertising self-presentation style on customer purchase intention

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose the self-presentation styles of advertising influence consumer self-image, which in turn influence purchase intention.Design/methodology/approachUsing virtual brands as stimuli in a series of experiments, this study collects data on consumer self-image and purchase intention in the conditions of different advertising styles.FindingsWhile consumer self-image mediates the relationship between advertising self-presentation style and purchase intention, the consumption situation (public vs private) moderates the relationship between self-presentation style, consumer self-image and purchase intention. That is, self-enhancing advertising promotes customers’ ideal self, which in turn increases their purchase intention for publicly consumed products, whereas self-deprecating advertising solicits customers’ real self, which in turn increases their purchase intention for privately consumed products.Practical implicationsThis study informs product/brand managers and marketers of the importance of aligning the self-presentation style of advertising with the consumption situation of the product being advertised.Originality/valueBased on self-consistency theory, this study not only finds a relationship between the self-presentation style of advertising and purchase intention, but also uncovers the mediating role of self-image in this relationship. Furthermore, the relationship chain of “self-presentation style of advertising – self-image – purchase intention” is moderated by the consumption situation of the product. This is one of the first studies to explore the intricacies of these relationships.

Novel and practical idea generation

PurposeNumerous studies have examined individual attitudes and behaviors in both face-to-face (FTF) communication and computer-mediated communication (CMC). However, little research has focused on differences between FTF communication and CMC with respect to idea generation for new product development or on the role of their individual characteristics. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the influences of FTF, CMC and brand knowledge on idea generation.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted a 4 × 2 quasi-experimental design to examine the effects of four types of interactive groups (low and high level of FTF × low and high level of CMC) and brand knowledge (low and high) on novel and practical idea generation. Data from168 members of the Mondeo Motor Club in Taiwan were assessed.FindingsParticipants with more FTF interaction were more likely to generate novelty ideas than practicality ideas. In addition, participants with high brand knowledge produced more novel and practical ideas compared with participants with low brand knowledge. However, the empirical findings did not support the moderating role of brand knowledge in the relationship between interactive behaviors and idea generations.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of this study are relevant for facilitating the “novelty” and “practicality” ideas in virtual brand communities. However, this research examined a single community, which may limit the generalizability of its results to other virtual communities.Originality/valueFew studies have focused on online idea generation from a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) interaction perspective. The results of this study can assist marketers to understand how C2C interactive behaviors differentiate the “novelty” and “practicality” ideas.

Virtual Brand Community Experience, Identification, and Electronic Word-of-mouth

ABSTRACT Despite recognizing the importance of virtual brand community (VBC) and the existence of different types of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) behaviors (e.g., opinion giving, opinion passing and opinion seeking), the existing literature remains inadequate regarding the influences of VBC experiences and identification on eWOM. This study, incorporating stimulus–organism–response theory and related research, examines the influences of various VBC experiences (e.g., intellectual, sensory, entertainment, interactive, affective, and relational experiences) on the different types of eWOM behaviors, mediated via two different types of identification (i.e., brand identification and community identification). Data are collected using an online survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results show that VBC experiences (with the exception of interactive experience) have a significant impact on brand identification and community identification. Moreover, community identification and brand identification distinctively affect the different types of eWOM behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

Decomposing and relating user engagement in festivals’ virtual brand communities: An analysis of Sónar’s Twitter and Facebook

Festival branding is undergoing a revolution based on the consolidation of new communicative behaviours in virtual brand communities (VBCs), above all, channelled through social media platforms. Although the literature on festivals has analysed engagement in VBCs, this study provides an in-depth observation of the profiles of festival VBCs users, how they modulate engagement attributes and behaviours and how these relate to their engagement focus, highlighting festival branding while also considering other main focuses (i.e. social capital creation and place-making). Thus, this article aims to characterize these elements in festivals’ VBCs through a multidimensional analysis of nearly 2150 entries in the Twitter and Facebook VBCs of one of the most prominent music festivals in Europe, Sónar (Barcelona). Moreover, it does so through a longitudinal observation covering a whole year, showing the relevance of ongoing communication to festival success. The results show the benefits (for organizers as well as other users) of understanding these elements and their mutual relationships.

Identification of Effective Strategies in Facilitating Virtual Mobility

Background: Virtual mobility, as one of the emerging phenomena in the internationalization of higher education, is a process that all activities within it are done electronically or digitally. It is used, among others, to facilitate physical activities, such as student exchanges, with the help of information and communication technologies. Objectives: The current study aimed at the identification of effective strategies in facilitating virtual mobility. Methods: In order to achieve the objectives of the study, a qualitative approach and a phenomenological research method were used. The statistical population included all the experts experienced in the area of internationalization from the top five comprehensive and public universities in Iran, including the University of Tehran, Shahid Beheshti University, Tarbiat Modares University, Mashhad Ferdowsi University, and Shiraz University. The participants included 27 experts with international experience purposefully selected from the five universities and their comments were collected using semi-structured interviews to achieve the theoretical saturation of data. The content analysis of the data was done using MAXQDA version 2018 software. Results: Seventeen minor components were identified as effective strategies in facilitating virtual mobility in higher education. The main effective strategies in facilitating virtual mobility were organized in four major themes, including promoting university websites, promoting social networks, improving virtual infrastructure, and strengthening virtual branding. Conclusions: The results of the study showed that among the components, promoting university websites and promoting social networks were the most important factors highlighted by the experts as the factors that could facilitate the process of virtual mobility as an area in which more must be invested.

#Visitspain. Breaking down affective and cognitive attributes in the social media construction of the tourist destination image

The consolidation of social media as the main sphere for image formation for tourist destinations requires a reinterpretation of how and who is leading the image formation process. There are still some gaps in the literature regarding the structure of virtual (destination) brand communities and the nature and composition of user-generated content. Conducting a quantitative content analysis of a sample of some 1500 tweets in the Spain brand community on Twitter (#visitspain) has allowed the author to (1) identify stakeholders, (2) explore the nature and distribution of affective and cognitive attributes, (3) analyse relationships among those attributes and with tourism products and place brands, and (4) observe potential seasonal variations over the year. Findings indicate the need to consider those elements as relevant recommendations for practitioners.

Soccer and Twitter: virtual brand community engagement practices

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify how consumer engagement practices shape the dynamics of a soccer club virtual brand community.Design/methodology/approachA netnographic approach was employed. Using a Python script, more than 7,000 tweets about São Paulo FC soccer club on Twitter were collected and analyzed using the Virtual Brand Community Engagement Practices typology.FindingsThe dynamics of engagement relies on two types of practices: those that comprise the actions of tweeting, retweeting, replying to, mentioning and liking messages from and about the São Paulo FC soccer club profile and those derived from the proposition of Hollebeek et al. (2017). Given the dynamics of Twitter, some practices have performed differently than the original proposal, resulting in a slight adaptation of the framework.Research limitations/implicationsGiven the length and the netnographic nature of this study, its findings should be considered exploratory. Future studies can build upon the ideas presented here by researching different contexts and focal objects of engagement.Practical implicationsThis paper provides the refinement of social media strategies and content development to make them more efficient and to establish a relevant communication channel with audiences. This knowledge can contribute to a better understanding of goals and metrics.Originality/valueThis paper is based on the behavioral nature of engagement in virtual brand communities, which is an increasing topic of interest. To date, few studies have examined online engagement using a practice approach specifically in the sports marketing context.

When do customers engage in brand pages? Effects of social presence

PurposeDrawing upon the social presence theory, this paper aims to propose three social presence variables in the brand page context (the brand page as a medium, the presence of other customers and interaction with the brand page manager) and to test their effects on customer engagement behavior (CEB) and customer-brand identification (CBI).Design/methodology/approachA total of 340 responses were collected via an online research platform and analyzed using structural equation modeling analysis.FindingsThe results revealed that both the social presence of the brand page and the interaction with the brand page manager are positively associated with CEB, whereas that of other customers negatively influences CEB, which in turn, positively affects CBI.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper presents the underlying process of driving customers’ engagement activities and building psychological closeness between customers and brands by applying social presence theory and social identity theory to Facebook brand pages.Practical implicationsTo enhance customers’ experiences on Facebook brand pages, practitioners should visualize brand page managers through diverse types of postings. Brand page managers need to balance the presence of others, as well as bring a sense of human-likeness on the pages using storytelling strategies.Originality/valueThis research sheds light on the human side of a non-human world. The results suggest that the sense of a human presence in virtual brand communities is essential to engage customers with online activities toward brands while also building a closer customer–brand relationship.

The Role of Network Embeddedness and Psychological Ownership in Consumer Responses to Brand Transgressions

Research has recognized that in addition to consumer–brand relationships, consumers are engaged in social networks of consumer-to-consumer interactions, which increasingly take place online through virtual brand communities. However, little attention has been paid to how consumer-to-consumer influence within virtual brand communities plays a role when brands behave badly. This research examines the role of network embeddedness, specifically network centrality and network density, and psychological ownership in consumer responses to a brand transgression. Across three studies of virtual brand communities and one of offline brand communities, we document an inherent conflict for those who occupy a central position within a brand community. Central consumers are more likely to punish the brand for the transgression, but centrality also leads to greater psychological ownership of the brand community and the brand, which makes consumers less likely to punish the brand. Psychological ownership also leads to a higher likelihood of helping the brand recover from the transgression, creating an additional conflict for central consumers. Network density resolves these conflicts by strengthening the negative relationship between psychological ownership and likelihood to punish the brand, but only in online brand communities where punishing and helping behaviors are more visible and more likely to act as reputational signals for the central consumer. This suggests that firms should encourage the formation of dense virtual brand communities and cultivate psychological ownership among central community members in order to protect themselves from negative consequences in the wake of a transgression.

The influence of enterprise microblogging on consumer loyalty

Purpose This paper aims to explore how enterprise microblogging can influence consumer loyalty and thus generate business value for firms. The study aims to expand traditional brand community theory. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on brand community theory, social identity theory and usage and gratifications theory. Using a pre-survey of the fans of an enterprise microblog and a random sample survey of such fans on Sina Weibo, the authors tested the structural equation model with LISREL, which includes multiple fit indices. Findings The paper provides empirical insights about how enterprise microblogging can influence consumer loyalty and thus generate business value for firms. It suggests that consumers’ perceived value could strengthen their microblog identification, which will influence their perceived relationship with the enterprise and its products directly and indirectly through the mediation of enterprise identification. Perceived relationship can further influence purchase and recommendation intentions. Research limitations/implications Because of the chosen data collecting approach, the research results may be still subjective. Moreover, the study overlooks the effects of the different types of enterprise microblogging and consumers. Practical implications Enterprises should operate their official microblogging from the perspective of maintaining brand community to improve consumer loyalty. They can generate more value for consumers through their microblogging and predict the operating performance by evaluating the degree of consumers’ relationship perception. Originality/value This paper considers enterprise microblogging as a new form of virtual brand community and identifies its features, and expands theories of brand community, and social media/IT business value, social identity theory and gratifications theory.

Understanding the participation of passive members in online brand communities through the lens of psychological ownership theory

Abstract The presence of a large number of passive members in online brand communities has become a roadblock in the success of the community that can be overcome through their active participation in the online communities. In a bid to address the problem of passive members in virtual brand communities, the authors propose a conceptual framework depicting their participation. The conceptual model is grounded in psychological ownership theory portraying the drivers and outcomes of online brand community participation of passive members. A descriptive research design is adopted and the model is tested with data collected from 221 passive members through an online survey in India, with the help of multivariate analysis techniques. The results of the study reveal that a carefully instilled sense of individual psychological ownership and a sense of collective psychological ownership in the community can facilitate passive members' intention to participate in online brand communities. Passive members' participation can further stimulate their brand purchase intention and word-of-mouth about the community. The study contributes to the literature focusing on customer participation in online brand communities and offers important implications for the brand managers. It will permit them to optimize the potential of online communities by devising strategies to stimulate a sense of individual, as well as a collective sense of ownership to stimulate the participation of passive members.

Consumer engagement on social media: insights from a virtual brand community

PurposeBased on the conceptual model of consumer engagement in a virtual brand community, this study aims to investigate this phenomenon and gauges the validity of the model’s assumptions in the context of a Facebook fan page.Design/methodology/approachThe interactions between L’Oréal Paris Brazil and the members of its virtual community were collected for three months using a netnographic approach. The data of these interactions were evaluated using content analysis techniques.FindingsThe dimensions, processes and sub-processes of the conceptual model of consumer engagement, as proposed in the literature, were confirmed. Furthermore, the results reinforce the perspective that simple participation or involvement does not presume engagement, which reflects a complex psychological state dependent on the context and requiring previous and subsequent processes to manifest.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings were based on an examination of a high-end beauty product brand’s Facebook page. Nevertheless, these findings are not necessarily limited to high-end context consumers. Larger scale research (i.e. involving wider product categories) could endorse the underlying theoretical model of engagement.Practical implicationsThe study contributes to understanding the dynamics of how brands build relationships with consumers through social media and confirms the dynamics of the engagement concept and its role as a tool to increase brand value and competitive advantage.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the field by bridging the knowledge gap concerning consumer engagement in a social media context with practical and empirical evidence.

Social Capital on Consumer Knowledge-Sharing in Virtual Brand Communities: The Mediating Effect of Pan-Family Consciousness

Literature investigating social capital theory and Chinese family culture suggests that social capital exists in virtual brand communities, bringing convenience to members, contributing to the cultivation of pan-family consciousness, and affecting consumer knowledge-sharing. In this study, we considered members of virtual brand communities as the research subjects, then analyzed the data using SPSS19.0 and AMOS21.0. We showed that network density, shared language, and shared vision of social capital have a positive impact on pan-family consciousness. This, in turn, had a positive influence on knowledge-sharing, thus playing an intermediary role between cognitive capital and consumer knowledge-sharing.

Brand Fan Pages experience and strength as antecedents to engagement and intensity of use to achieve HEIS’ brand loyalty

ABSTRACTThe growing competitive environment in which Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are immersed has caused them to be constantly focused on implementing new strategies that allow them to consolidate student loyalty. Among the strategies are those related to the use of social media, virtual brand communities and Brand Fan Pages (BFPs). This research aims to show the HEIs some new ways to increase brand loyalty through their BFP. Both qualitative techniques, 2 focus group sessions with students from public and private universities, and quantitative techniques, 200 interviews with young university students aged 18–23, were used to develop this research. Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis was utilized to determine the relationship between variables. The main findings of the analysis indicate that it is possible for a higher education institution to increase student loyalty by generating positive experiences on their Brand Fan Page and generating greater platform use intensity.

The Effects of Customer Engagement and Group Diversity on Value Co-Creation in Virtual Brand Communities

The Effects of Customer Engagement and Group Diversity on Value Co-Creation in Virtual Brand Communities

Factors influencing customers’ willingness to participate in virtual brand community’s value co-creation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the factors influencing customers’ willingness to participate in virtual brand community’s value co-creation and help companies better operating the virtual brand community.Design/methodology/approachBased on social cognitive theory and the features of the virtual brand community, this paper constructed a model of factors influencing customers’ willingness to participate in virtual brand community’s value co-creation. Then this paper quantitatively analyzed the mediating effect and the moderating effect.FindingsThe empirical analysis came to the following conclusions: first, in virtual brand communities, customers’ willingness to participate in value co-creation would be influenced by subject factors, environment factors, brand factors and perceived value factor. Second, customer involvement is an important moderator. The more involved the customer is, the more he/she will rely on the virtual brand community. Particularly, customer involvement has a positive moderating effect on the influence of subject factors, while it has a negative moderating effect on the influence of community experience and community trust. Third, perceived value plays a significant mediating role between subject factors and customers’ willingness to participate in value co-creation.Practical implicationsThe results of this study can help companies better understand the influence of external factors like environment and brand so that they can better operate the virtual brand community and encourage customers to contribute to the development of the community and the brand.Originality/valueMost of the existing studies focused on the formation of virtual brand communities and customers’ participation behaviors, but there is limited research focusing on what contributes to customers’ participation in value co-creation of virtual brand communities. This study, therefore, attempts to bridge the research gap.

Research on the Impact of Online Service Remedy on Customer Interactive Behavior in Virtual Brand Community

With the popularization and development of the internet, people’s shopping, travel and other lifestyles have undergone tremendous changes. At the same time, the mode of maintaining customer relationship and creating enterprise and customer value has also changed. More and more enterprises transfer the channel of maintaining customer relationship and value creation from offline to online through virtual brand community, which not only breaks the limi-tation of time and space, but also provides better service for customers and improves customer loyalty. It is of great significance to realize value creation between enterprises and customers. Virtual brand community can not only help enterprises better understand the needs of customers, but also guide customers to participate in community interaction and better realize value creation. However, due to the virtuality and uncertainty of the Internet, the possibility of enterprises failing online services is greatly increased. If enterpris-es can’t take timely remedial measures to alleviate customers’ complaints and dissatisfaction, the negative emotions of customers will spread faster, have stronger targeting, and have wider impact. Therefore, the community will be reduced by influencing the customer interaction in the virtual brand commu-nity, thereby affecting the value sharing between enterprises and customers. Therefore, based on the regulatory focus theory, the impact of online service recovery on customer interaction behavior in virtual brand community is of great significance to realize value creation between enterprises and customers.

The Effect of Virtual Brand Community Experience on Customers' Participation in Innovation

Virtual brand community has become an important channel for consumers to make their own demands and participate in enterprise innovation, and can meet the psychological needs of consumers better in addition to material needs. However, there is no empirical study of whether the virtual brand community experience will effectively affect the customer's participation in innovation and how it affects it. The article based on the existing research and SOR theory to explore how the virtual brand community entertainment experience through customer psychological impact of customer participation in innovation. The association self-construction is used as the adjustment variable, and the empirical research is carried out through the questionnaire. The research shows that the virtual brand community entertainment experience will promote the participation of customers in innovation, and the customer's psychological authorization will serve as the intermediary role, and the association self-construction will play a negative regulating role.