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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of social media-based brand community (SMBBC) markers on customer-based brand equity (CBBE). Moreover, this research evaluates the mediating effect of brand community commitment and the moderating effect of customer gender.

This research collected data from a questionnaire survey with participants who are members of the Xiaomi Community in Vietnam on Facebook (XCVF). Finally, 512 valid and usable questionnaires were tested by applying the structural equation modeling approach.

On the basis of social identity theory, results showed that three components of brand community markers significantly affect two aspects of CBBE. Moreover, brand community commitment plays a mediating role in the relationship of shared consciousness, ritual and traditions, and CBBE. In addition, the influence of SMBBC on CBBE is stronger for women than for men.

The sample selected is limited to only members of XCVF, so the results may have an inadequate view in comparison with other brand communities. This research can eliminate other important variables that can contribute to this relationship.

This research is among the first studies that have focused on the importance of SMBBC markers on CBBE, the mediating role of brand community commitment and the moderating effect of customer gender.

This paper aims to examine brand-generated communities from the community managers’ point of view and investigate how social media influences managerial perceptions, attitudes and practises around brand communities.

The literature review examines the most prominent constructs describing consumer groupings around brands. It then focuses on how the term “brand community” has evolved throughout the years and transformed in the social media environment. Research involving one survey and one focus group among agency-employed brand community managers was conducted to explore and interpret their views and their work.

Brand community managers aim to increase platform metrics. They encourage interaction between each user and the brand, but not between users. While they execute pre-planned content calendars handling comments, they do not have the experience and autonomy to foster a communal environment. Finally, managers rely on extrinsic incentives, and even antagonise users, regarding control over the community.

The sample covers the majority of agency-employed brand community managers in one country: Greece. The findings call for a re-examination of the construct of brand community, as well as for a new assessment of groupings consumers form around brands in social media.

For actual brand communities to emerge in social media, community managers should have more training, experience and initiative to tailor content and metrics, use intrinsic incentives and propose engaging activities. The quest for platform-imposed measurements inhibits this opportunity, and so do centralised processes that define global brand management.

The managerial aspect of brand-generated communities is understudied, especially when management is outsourced. This paper provides insight on how platform priorities and managerial practises dilute expectations that consumer-generated communities have created.

This paper aims to explore different strategies used by brands to target the Hispanic market via social media from the lens of the Spanish language in a multicultural country like the USA.

This study uses a netnographic approach by drawing information from a study of the Facebook pages of 11 brands belonging to different industries.

Companies engage in four levels of cultural identity adaptation using different strategies based on ethnicity: language adaptation, identity elements, identity matching and Latino persona. The study also shows that merely translating Facebook pages do not generate high levels of communitarian interaction.

This study examines different strategies used by brands in the USA to target the Hispanic audience on social media to provide insights for brand managers to develop online engagement.

With the increase in cultural diversity in different countries and the rise of social media platforms, brand researchers need to better understand how cultural identity permeates marketing strategies in online spaces. Social media platforms such as Facebook offer flexible environments where strategies beyond product- and brand-related aspects can be used. This study extends the literature by showing the heterogeneity of cultural identity-based strategies used by companies to ensure customer engagement and brand loyalty and the impact of such strategies on users.

The purpose of this paper is to add a needed sport foundation for the brand community conversation evolution within the International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship (Popp et al., 2016; Richelieu, 2008; Trail et al., 2016) from the spark of Gladden and Funk’s (2001) brand association and loyalty in sport.

This paper traces the evolution of brand community research from its beginnings in the general business literature to the current brand community research in sport marketing today. Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) define brand communities as a specialized and non-geographically bound community based around a set of structured social relationships amongst admirers of a brand and are often recognized as the most integral relationship component of consumers to brands (Muge and Ozge, 2013).

Media transcends geography and brand communities will continue to transcend geography to the boundaries of mass media.

With this growing importance on attachment to brand community (ABC) through mass media, or attachment team in the sport context, further exploration on attachment variables is critical for the success of the next evolutionary stage of brand communities.

An ABC framework in the sport setting is proposed through multidisciplinary variables gathered in a review of brand community literature to address the unique attachment perspectives of sport consumers.

Consumer engagement has been designated as an approach to describing online interactions that more comprehensively reflects the nature of consumers’ interactive relationships in online brand communities. This paper aims to explore consumers’ brand community engagement in the context of Facebook brand pages. This research puts forth the hypothesis that consumers’ brand community engagement on Facebook is dependent upon two overarching themes: external social forces and internal personal forces.

Based on social impact theory, social identity theory and social exchange theory, a conceptual research model is developed and empirically tested through structural equation modelling using cross-sectional data of 460 Facebook brand fans.

The empirical results suggest that internal personal forces primarily positively influence brand community engagement, while external social forces can even impact consumers’ brand community engagement negatively.

Future research should test and validate the proposed model for specific categories and brands.

This paper offers help to online brand marketers to trigger meaningful engagement of consumers in a brand community on Facebook.

This paper examines the consumer engagement construct from a behavioural perspective in a defined social media context and highlights the peculiarities of online brand communities on Facebook that distinguish them from traditional brand communities. The research uses a strong theoretical foundation to develop a model that investigates the prevalent variables that influence consumers’ brand community engagement on Facebook.

Brand pages are a very popular tool for companies to communicate with consumers in SNSs. Although brand pages could be considered virtual brand communities, they differ in several aspects. Thus, this chapter reviews the literature on brand pages attending to the main differences with other virtual communities, the motivations to join brand pages and its consequences for consumers and brands.

The studies reviewed have allowed us to identify the main characteristics of brand pages as a communication tool, as well as the definition of an important research agenda for this topic.

We have identified the main unique aspects that characterize brand pages as a virtual brand community. The motivations to become members of brand pages are analyzed as well as the positive consequences of these pages on the marketing variables. We also identified the research needs on brand pages.

This chapter can be useful to both, marketers, by showing them how brand pages work and what motivate consumers to join it; and researchers, by showing them the main gaps on brand pages that should be addressed in future studies.

This chapter highlights the role of brand pages as a communication tool. It constitutes an attempt to review the literature and organize knowledge on brand pages. The characteristics of brand pages and virtual brand communities, the motivations to participate, the consequences for the brand and an important research agenda are developed.

This study aims to explore the nature of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and the key drivers of this consumer-generated brand communication, focusing on eWOM in the context of social media communications.

The study uses inductive qualitative design, and the data have been collected via 22 semi-structured interviews with individuals who follow brands on Facebook.

Building on interview data, the paper advances a conception of eWOM in the social media context and highlights that eWOM consists of a broad range of brand-related communications, which include such activities as consuming, commenting, posting and forwarding information. The study also uncovers two major antecedents of eWOM, which are one’s concern for self-presentation and privacy.

Further research could examine additional drivers of brand-related eWOM in the context of Facebook brand pages, and investigate eWOM in other social media platforms.

The findings have two important implications for brand management. Firstly, considering the importance of self-presentation, brands are advised to develop an in-depth understanding of the types of self-image pursued by their target audience. Secondly, given the concerns about privacy on social media, brands may carefully consider and manage the levels of privacy that should apply when communicating with their followers.

The novel insights centre on the individual differences in eWOM activity, and the importance of one’s perceptions of self-image and privacy in explaining these differences. It seems that the propensity to engage in eWOM and the form that this communication takes are the reflections of one’s self-presentation and privacy preferences.

Online communities designed to appeal to children are on the rise. The success of this marketplace phenomenon indicates that adolescents are likely candidates for brand community membership; however, the literature has yet to examine this trend. This research aims to address this gap and establish the likely existence of brand community involvement among adolescents. It further seeks to explore the characteristics which may differentiate children who are more likely to become involved in brand communities and examine what impact their involvement may have on adolescents' psychological well-being.

A national online panel was employed to collect survey data from respondents aged 7-18 and their parents.

The results support the existence of a high brand community involvement segment among adolescents. Adolescents high in brand community involvement are found to display noteworthy differences in attitudes, values, and marketplace behaviors. Several interesting avenues of future research are proposed.

To the authors' knowledge this is the first study attempting to measure differences between adolescents who measure high and low in brand community involvement. Of particular interest are the results indicating that adolescents involved in brand communities may have important distinguishing attitudes and values and exhibit noteworthy differences in their marketplace behavior.

Few 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.

An online investigation of 515 OBC users was conducted to gather data, and structural equation modeling was applied to test the hypotheses.

The 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.

Managers 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.

This 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 purpose of this study is to investigate the perceived exposure of fashion consumers to different types of fashion brands’ social media marketing (SMM) actions in social media, and its relationship with the intention to engage in electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM) behaviors.

The empirical study uses a survey conducted on a stratified random sample of 241 Indonesian members of fashion social media brand communities (SMBCs). The research design includes 19 types of SMM actions and 3 types of eWoM engagement behaviors, and investigates their relationship using point-biserial correlation.

Generation of intention to engage in “pass-on” and “endorsement” eWoM has different drivers and serves different purposes. The findings suggest that endorsement engagement is contingent on the consumer’s perceived exposure to marketing action stimuli, while pass-on engagement is driven by cognitive-inducing actions.

This study extends current theory on SMM strategy and its relationship with eWoM engagement with a theoretically grounded conceptualization of eWoM engagement behaviors through the use of one-click social plug-ins.

The study offers guidelines for fashion brands to effectively design their SMM strategies by identifying specific drivers of consumers’ intention to engage in eWoM.

This study identifies sources of generation of eWoM engagement behavioral intention from a fine-grained analysis of marketing actions across various fashion SMBCs. Besides, it extends the applicability of the “mere exposure” effect to the SMM context. The research pioneers the study on fashion consumers’ eWoM engagement behaviors in Indonesia, a country with one of the largest social media populations.