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1 – 10 of over 6000Rong‐An Shang, Yu‐Chen Chen and Hsueh‐Jung Liao
To examine the effects of consumers' lurking and posting behaviors in virtual consumer communities on specific brand loyalty.
Abstract
Purpose
To examine the effects of consumers' lurking and posting behaviors in virtual consumer communities on specific brand loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey of a virtual community of Apple computer users was conducted to test a model of involvement, participation, loyalty, trust, and attitudes toward the brand exist in messages within the community.
Findings
The causes and effects of lurking and posting differed. Lurking contributed to brand loyalty more than posting did, and the primary purpose of lurking was to look for information regarding product function/performance, instead of satisfying consumers' affective needs.
Research limitations/implications
As a result of the limitations in a computer mediated communication environment, virtual consumer communities should be perceived as an arena for weak‐tied strangers to communicate for word‐of‐mouth (WOM) behavior, rather than as a brand community.
Practical implications
Although negative messages in a community can hurt brand image, companies should encourage the establishment of communities about their products and encourage consumers to participate in them.
Originality/value
Although the importance of virtual communities has been recognized, few studies have been done to examine the business value of consumer communities. Based on perspectives of brand community and WOM behavior, this paper contributes to virtual community and marketing research by clarifying the effects of consumers' lurking and posting behaviors in a consumer community on brand loyalty.
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Qingjuan Bu, Yongsheng Jin and Zhaohui Li
With the development of social networking service and WeMedia, virtual brand community has become a typical platform of value co-creation and customers have become a core subject…
Abstract
Purpose
With the development of social networking service and WeMedia, virtual brand community has become a typical platform of value co-creation and customers have become a core subject of value co-creation. The high proportion of negative members and even zombie members has become an obstacle to the sustainable development of many communities. Then, how to maintain and promote the sustainable development of virtual brand community? The purpose of this article is to examine how customers prefer community or brand.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper obtained data through an online questionnaire survey to test the proposed hypotheses of this study.
Findings
The findings of this study indicated that practical and social values not only promote customers to be loyal toward community but also drive customers to be loyal toward brand and their influence on community loyalty is greater than on brand loyalty, but entertainment value does not significantly affect community and brand loyalty. The effect of practical and social values on community loyalty is fully mediated by the effect of brand loyalty, and the effect of practical and social values on brand loyalty is fully mediated by the effect of community loyalty.
Originality/value
This research enriches the research study’s results of value co-creation theory and customer assets, thus providing a new perspective for research on customer loyalty.
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Minjung Kang and Dong-Hee Shin
– The purpose of this paper is to examine how types of virtual brand community (VBC) benefits influence VBC loyalty through specific types of interaction.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how types of virtual brand community (VBC) benefits influence VBC loyalty through specific types of interaction.
Design/methodology/approach
The study targeted 250 brand community users to conduct an empirical analysis using SPSS 19.0.
Findings
Consumers’ perceived benefits (functional, experiential, and symbolic) were found to be the leading variables in inducing consumer loyalty. Brand community managers should not focus only on the benefits offered by the brand community, but also on how these benefits can be associated with human-to-computer and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) interaction.
Research limitations/implications
The virtual community (VC) has an important role as a marketing tool. As the VC within the virtual space has gradually been increasing, its importance has grown as well, therefore making research studies on heightening members’ brand community site loyalty important.
Originality/value
This study broadens and contextualizes our understanding of what type of VBC interaction can be further activated in the process of enhancing the members’ VBC loyalty, which is affected by consumers’ perceived benefits.
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Yang Zhao, Yawen Chen, Ruoxin Zhou and Yinping Ci
The 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…
Abstract
Purpose
The 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/approach
Based 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.
Findings
The 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 implications
The 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/value
Most 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.
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Xema Pathak and Manisha Pathak-Shelat
By doing sentiment analysis of netnographic data, this study aims to explain the need to give special attention to negative sentiments expressed in virtual tribes, as they play a…
Abstract
Purpose
By doing sentiment analysis of netnographic data, this study aims to explain the need to give special attention to negative sentiments expressed in virtual tribes, as they play a significant role in translating the informational mode of conversation to the relational mode of conversation. The overall purpose is to aid brand managers in the process of brand co-creation by articulating brand communication targeted to specific audiences based on their shared passions and interests.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a mixed-methods approach. The primary data were collected from two virtual brand communities through qualitative net-based ethnographic methods. Semantria Excel plug-in was used to categorize the extracted consumer statements based on positive, neutral and negative sentiments.
Findings
Managing the negative interactions in the virtual communities and relationship development with members through non-commercial conversations should be the two main priorities for effective brand management. Sentiment analysis specifically helps to identify pain points and consumer sentiments at each stage of the shopper journey. The findings of the study endorse the importance of offering and supporting communities as a valid marketing.
Research limitations/implications
This paper shows how systematic attention to user interactions on virtual brand communities can be used for tribal marketing, which in turn will impact the intangible aspects of the business, such as increasing brand value and loyalty. By engaging the consumers, the social ties among the target audience can be nurtured and strengthened.
Originality/value
This paper focuses on decoding their behavior by unpeeling the consumer statements rather than tangible aspects of the business, such as sales of products or services. It contributes to development of a theoretical framework that outlines how the interactions in virtual brand communities can aid in formulating the functional and communicational strategies for a brand.
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Jian Zheng, Renjing Liu, Xingju Zhong and Ru Zhang
With the continuous development of Internet technology, virtual brand communities (VBCs) have increasingly become essential fronts for enterprises and consumers to carry out…
Abstract
Purpose
With the continuous development of Internet technology, virtual brand communities (VBCs) have increasingly become essential fronts for enterprises and consumers to carry out professional communication and the leading platform for consumers and other consumers to engage in social and brand discussion. Meanwhile, numerous scholars began to pay attention to VBCs as their research topic. However, there is no systematic understanding of the existing literature on the VBCs research. Therefore, this study aims to provide a comprehensive and systematic review of VBCs research over the past twenty years.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on HistCite and CiteSpace software, descriptive statistics and bibliometric analysis were conducted in this study. Specifically, by adopting research cooperation network analysis, co-citation analysis of literature, cluster analysis and co-word analysis, the authors analyzed 1,157 articles on VBCs in the Web of Science database from 2000 to 2020.
Findings
This study summarizes the research of VBCs from three aspects. First, the general characteristics of VBCs literature are analyzed. Second, knowledge bases, research contents, theoretical foundations and theoretical contributions of VBCs are dug and integrated into a knowledge framework. Third, the evolution and trend of VBCs research topics are visualized and analyzed in two phases (from 2005 to 2012 and from 2013 to 2020).
Originality/value
This study describes the research status, knowledge structure and famous topics of VBCs research over the past twenty years. Further, the research topics for VBCs have maintained continuity in the last twenty years. Furthermore, the research topics have also been evolving with the development of network technology and changes in the external environment. These results also provide valuable clues about this field's future directions and practical implications.
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Jorge Matute, Ramon Palau-Saumell and Nicoletta Occhiocupo
The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of customer brand engagement (CBE) by proposing and empirically testing a model of antecedents and consequences of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of customer brand engagement (CBE) by proposing and empirically testing a model of antecedents and consequences of CBE for user-initiated online brand communities (OBCs).
Design/methodology/approach
The model is tested using a sample of 584 participants in two relevant OBCs created and managed by brand fans. Specifically, data were collected from two communities in the photography products category: Nikonistas and Canonistas.
Findings
The results indicate that community and brand identification positively and significantly influence CBE. Furthermore, the supporting role of OBCs’ moderators facilitates CBE and moderates the influence of community identification on CBE. Regarding the outcomes of CBE, the results show that higher levels of engagement are positively, directly and significantly associated with favorable intentions towards the brand and the community. These effects are then mediated by brand affective commitment.
Research limitations/implications
The study has been conducted in two Spanish OBCs of two specific high-involvement products category: it is cross-sectional and focuses on a limited number of antecedents and consequences.
Practical implications
Evidence from this research supports and emphasizes the potential that these platforms have for brand management such that firms’ resources could be best allocated on those elements that lead to superior CBE.
Originality/value
The study endorses the role of CBE in fostering brand and community-related favorable outcomes in the context of user-initiated OBCs. It shed lights on the potential that these online platforms have for brands and on the role that brand management should play in digital contexts that are outside the direct control of the company.
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Chia-Wen Chang, Chih-Huei Ko, Heng-Chiang Huang and Shih-Ju Wang
A brand community consists of relationships between a brand and consumers; community members’ identification with the brand community is a central characteristic of the community…
Abstract
Purpose
A brand community consists of relationships between a brand and consumers; community members’ identification with the brand community is a central characteristic of the community. This study aims to provide a comprehensive conceptual framework to investigate how and why such identification-based relationships yield firm- and member-level benefits to participants in the brand community.
Design/methodology/approach
This cross-sectional study analyzes data collected through a questionnaire survey of members from the brand community of VW-Golf Club members in Taiwan. The researchers attended the annual meeting of club members and handed out questionnaires directly to the members. The degree centrality of each member was calculated using UCINET 6 for Windows, a social network analysis software application. This study adopts the partial least squares program to evaluate the measurement properties and structural relationships specified in the research model.
Findings
The findings suggest that when customers’ identification with a brand community becomes salient, they strengthen their emotional attachment to the brand and improve their centrality in the network. Consequently, emotional attachment can serve as a guiding principle in decision-making and thus strengthen brand equity and assessment of brand extensions. Central members will also gain greater benefits, including collaborative opportunities and influence, through their advantageous position in the network.
Originality/value
This study makes four main contributions to the brand community literature. First, this is the first empirical study to simultaneously examine the relationships among community identification (customer to community), emotional attachment to the brand (customer to brand) and network centrality (customer to customer). Second, the empirical framework depicts dual value-creation routes that explain how identification-based relationships can yield firm- and member-level benefits. With respect to firm-level benefits, this is the first empirical study to examine the brand equity and assessment of brand extension in the brand community research. Third, this study applies the rarely adopted UCINET 6 software to scrutinize the network data from the brand community. Finally, this paper examines three actions that organizations can leverage to enhance consumer identification with a brand community.
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Vincent Jeseo, Matthew M. Lastner and Hulda G. Black
The e-services market is expected to reach nearly $500bn globally by 2028. As this marketplace grows, customer-to-customer interactions (CCIs) occurring through virtual channels…
Abstract
Purpose
The e-services market is expected to reach nearly $500bn globally by 2028. As this marketplace grows, customer-to-customer interactions (CCIs) occurring through virtual channels will likely increase. Consequently, the purpose of this research is to examine how the context in which CCI’s occur (i.e. virtual vs in-person) and the frequency of their occurrence affects customer identification, leading to increased customer engagement and more favorable purchase behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted to test the proposed models and hypotheses. The sample for Study 1 is comprised of college students taking in-person or online classes (n = 290). In Study 2, members of an online brand community (n = 125) were surveyed. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings
Overall, results support a mediation effect such that CCI context (virtual vs in-person) affects customer engagement and purchase behaviors via customer identification. Specifically, Study 1 finds that customer engagement behaviors (CEBs) are greater for in-person CCIs due to the frequency of interactions and heightened identification between customers. Study 2 further examines the CCI frequency-identification link and finds that customer-firm identification is the only form of identification that affects CEBs and purchase behaviors.
Originality/value
Limited customer engagement research has examined the effects of CCIs on CEBs, and research has rarely compared in-person to virtual CCI contexts. This paper addresses these shortcomings by testing the effects of in-person and virtual CCIs on CCI frequency, identification and CEBs. This research fills another important gap in the literature by considering the unique effects of specific dimensions of customer identification on CEBs and purchase behaviors.
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Hoa Thi Hoang, Feng Wang, Quang Van Ngo and Man Chen
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Research limitations/implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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