scholarly journals Examining the key determinants towards online pro-brand and anti-brand community citizenship behaviours

2018 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 850-872 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.C. Wong ◽  
Mohamed Yacine Haddoud ◽  
Y.K. Kwok ◽  
Hongwei He

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a research model to identify the key determinants and examine their impact towards online pro-brand and anti-brand community citizenship behaviours (CCBs). Design/methodology/approach A survey based on the research model is used to collect empirical data from 260 and 200 members of online pro-brand communities (OBCs) and online anti-brand communities (OABCs), respectively. A two-stage approach employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis and artificial neural network (ANN) is first applied to uncover new observations. Findings Moral identity and positive brand emotion (BE) are the two most influential factors driving both online pro-brand and anti-brand CCBs. A higher level of internalisation might be required to exhibit online anti-brand CCB as opposed to online pro-brand CCB. This contradicts the current understanding that anti-brand behaviours are less morally restricted given the virtuality and anonymity of online communities. OABC members may need to better justify themselves internally to overcome positive BE when exercising anti-brand action. Also, brand identification, brand dis-identification and BE would be used to identify two types of OABC members. Research limitations/implications The effect of motives other than pro-social remains unclear on online pro-brand and anti-brand CCBs. Originality/value This is the first paper to develop two new dimensions which provide a more complete definition of CCB. Also, some new observations are uncovered by comparing the effect of different key determinants on online pro-brand CCB against that of online anti-brand CCB. The research model can be used to define and improve member (or brand) engagement which would enhance the management of OBCs and OABCs.

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (9) ◽  
pp. 1854-1881 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Dessart ◽  
Joaquín Aldás-Manzano ◽  
Cleopatra Veloutsou

Purpose Although recent research appreciates that consumers increasingly interact with brands in brand communities and that brand engagement is an important and complex phenomenon in brand communities, little is known about the nature of individuals’ brand engagement in brand communities. This study aims to identify brand community members’ segments in terms of their brand engagement within the community; help us understand if these segments use a different approach in the development of brand loyalty; and develop mechanisms that can be used to identify members of these segments. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a quantitative approach and uses a total of 970 responses from members of Facebook brand pages in three popular languages on Facebook (English, French and Spanish). Data are analysed with structural equation modelling, integrating FIMIX-PLS and POS-PLS. Findings The results reveal that cognitive, affective and behavioural engagement dimensions play a different role in driving brand loyalty. Three different segments of engaged consumers exist (emotional engagers, thinkers and active engagers). Variables related to the perceived value of the brand community provide initial explanations as to the differences of the consumer groups. Research limitations/implications The data were collected from a specific type of brand communities (Facebook-based, company-managed brand communities) and are self-reported. Practical implications This work demonstrates the heterogeneity of brand community members in terms of their brand engagement profile and the effect of this profile on the formation of behavioural brand loyalty. Suggestions on identifying members of these segments based on the value that they get from the community are offered. Originality/value This work extends the brand engagement and brand community literature. It is the first work that provides this nature of actionable suggestions to the teams supporting brands with brand communities.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jitender Kumar

Purpose The purpose of this study is the exploration of customer engagement with the brand and brand community (dual foci) inside online brand communities and to assess the simultaneous impact of dual foci of engagement in creating equity for the brand. The role of sense of community is explored as a moderator in influencing customer engagement. Design/methodology/approach The sample is composed of the members of Facebook-based brand communities. An internet survey of 833 subjects provides data to test the theoretical model with the help of structural equation modelling using AMOS 21. Findings The empirical investigation supports the proposed theory except for a few counterintuitive findings. Psychological ownership with the brand and the brand community has a direct effect on customer engagement with the brand and the brand community, respectively. A brand-based value-congruity has a direct effect on brand engagement; however, community-based value-congruity has an indirect effect on brand community engagement through brand community psychological ownership. The moderating effect of sense of community on engagement is also observed. Engagement with dual foci explained a substantial proportion of the variance in brand equity. Research limitations/implications A student sample, cross-sectional research design and a limited number of constructs in the nomological network to explore engagement in an online brand community constitute few limitations of this study. Customer engagement with dual foci has major implications for both the researchers and practitioners dealing with online brand communities. Practical implications To engage customers in online brand communities, dual foci should be the objective of management. A sense of ownership towards the brand and value-congruity with the brand should be aimed to engage customers with the brands; brand community psychological ownership and value-congruity with the community should be embraced by the firms to achieve brand community engagement. A high sense of community also needs to be promoted for strengthening dual foci engagement that further generates brand equity. Originality/value Customer brand engagement and brand community engagement had been studied separately in literature ignoring the fact that brand is the raison d’etre of the community. Taking a dual object engagement perspective, this study has charted out different routes of how to generate brand equity using online brand communities.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 119-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Vaux Halliday ◽  
Alexandra Astafyeva

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise millennial cultural consumers (MCCs) to bring together strands of consumer theory with branding theory to consider how to attract and retain younger audiences in arts organisations. Within that the authors single out for attention how “brand community” theory might apply to MCCs. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a conceptual paper that reviews and comments on concepts relevant to helping arts organisations develop strategies to attract and retain younger consumers in their audiences. Findings – Thoughtful conceptual insights and four research propositions for further work by academics and/or practitioners on Millennials and the art and culture world are derived from this review and commentary. Managerial implications are also drawn out. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the knowledge development of such concepts as value and brand communities. It also provides an explanation of these concepts conncecting academic thought on value with pressing management challenges for arts organisations, suggesting ways to apply brand community thinking to innovatiely conceptualised MCCs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Septianto ◽  
Bambang Soegianto

Purpose Although previous research has established that moral emotion, moral judgment, and moral identity influence consumer intention to engage in prosocial behavior (e.g. donating, volunteering) under some circumstances, these factors, in reality, can concurrently influence judgment process. Therefore, it is important to get a more nuanced understanding of how the combinations of each factor can lead to a high intention to engage in prosocial behavior. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This research employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to explore different configurations of moral emotion, judgment, and identity that lead to a high consumer intention to engage in prosocial behavior. Findings Findings indicate four configurations of moral emotion, moral judgment, and moral identity that lead to a high intention to engage in prosocial behavior. Research limitations/implications This research focuses on the case of a hospital in Indonesia; thus, it is important not to overgeneralize the findings. Nonetheless, from a methodological standpoint, opportunity emerges to broaden the examinations in other service and cultural contexts. Practical implications The findings of this research can help the hospital to develop effective combinations of advertising and marketing strategies to promote prosocial behavior among its customers. Originality/value This paper provides the first empirical evidence on the existence of multiple pathways of moral emotion, judgment, and identity that lead to a high consumer intention to engage in prosocial behavior. The implications of this research also highlight the importance of cultural context in understanding consumer behavior.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuğba Özbölük ◽  
Yunus Dursun

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the different types of members based on their roles within an online brand community dedicated to Apple. Design/methodology/approach Design/methodology/approach Data are drawn from an 18-month netnographic study, including participant and non-participant observation. Findings Findings reveal that members of the online brand community share a common goal but they are heterogeneous in many respects. In this research, five different types of brand community members are identified: learner, pragmatist, activist, opinion leader and evangelist. These findings emphasize the heterogeneity of the brand community or the differences of members and subgroups they form in the community. Practical implications This paper offers some insights for brand managers. There are different sub-tribes in online brand communities and these sub-tribes develop their own meanings of the brand. This means that online brand communities do not form one single homogenous target group and can be segmented into subgroups. Findings also offer a deeper understanding of negative characteristics of online brand community members. The role “activist” found in this study may be crucial for marketers, as activists can represent the negative side of online brand communities. Originality/value The literature on brand communities has focused predominantly on the homogeneity of these communities. This paper extends the literature by demonstrating the heterogeneity in an online brand community. The paper contributes to the brand community literature by substantiating that online brand community members can be segmented into subgroups based on their roles within the community. In addition, the paper extends the existing literature on brand communities that has overlooked the destructive consumer roles.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 877-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Lay-Hwa Bowden ◽  
Jodie Conduit ◽  
Linda D. Hollebeek ◽  
Vilma Luoma-aho ◽  
Birgit Apenes Solem

Purpose Online brand communities (OBCs) are an effective avenue for brands to engage consumers. While engaging with the brand, consumers simultaneously interact with other OBC members; thus engaging with multiple, interrelated engagement objects concurrently. The purpose of this paper is to explore both positively and negatively valenced consumer engagement with multiple engagement objects, the interplay between these, and the spillover effect from consumers’ engagement with the OBC to their engagement with the brand. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on 16 in-depth interviews with OBC members of a luxury accessory brand, a constant comparative method was adopted using axial and selective coding procedures. The objective was to understand the nature of participants’ engagement with the brand, the OBC, and the interplay between individuals’ engagement with these objects. The coding framework and resultant interpretive frameworks address engagement valence, outcomes, and direction. Findings This study illustrates consumer expressions of consumers’ positively and negatively valenced engagement with a focal brand, and with the OBC. Further, it demonstrates the interplay (spillover effect) that occurs between consumers’ engagement with the OBC, to their engagement with the brand. While the existence of positively valenced engagement with the OBC was found to further enhance consumer brand engagement (i.e. reflecting an engagement accumulation effect), negatively valenced engagement with the OBC was found to reduce consumer brand engagement (i.e. reflecting an engagement detraction effect). Originality/value While consumer engagement has been recognized to have both positive and negative manifestations, this study demonstrates that consumers’ engagement valence may differ across interrelated engagement objects (i.e. the brand and the OBC). Further, we demonstrate the existence of engagement spillover effects from the OBC to the brand for both positively and negatively valenced engagement.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Puneet Kaur ◽  
Amandeep Dhir ◽  
Risto Rajala ◽  
Yogesh Dwivedi

Purpose The success and survival of any form of online community relies on the presence and active participation of its users. Hence, ensuring active user participation and retaining existing users is a key concern of the moderators of online communities. To address these challenges, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the epistemic, emotional, and social values that influence users’ intention to continue using an online social media brand community. Moreover, the study also investigates the differences in the influence of the investigated constructs and users’ various activity levels. Design/methodology/approach This study utilized the consumption value theory framework for testing the relationship between different measures. An empirical analysis of the consumption values of 577 users in an online social media brand community was accomplished using structural equation modeling. Findings The study findings revealed that emotional and social values exert partial influence in predicting users’ intention to continue using online social media brand communities. In particular, social enhancement and playfulness predict users’ continuation intentions. Moreover, the results show that the influence of the investigated constructs (except playfulness) is consistent across users with various activity levels in online social media brand communities. Research limitations/implications These findings pave the way for further theoretical and practical considerations of the role of consumption values in resolving challenges of user participation and retention. However, there are still some open gaps concerning the generalizability of the findings as well as other factors that could potentially influence the user intentions. Future studies should validate the findings by recruiting diverse users in terms of their age and cultural background. Practical implications The study findings are of special relevance for the service operators interested in practicing user-centric innovation. Moreover, the findings can help online social media brand community managers to kick start user-centric innovation activities in their community. Originality/value The study provides a novel perspective on the challenges of assessing users’ consumption behavior. The perceived values have been conceptualized using the constructs of social influence, problem solving, playfulness, social enhancement, and social interaction.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Haverila ◽  
Caitlin McLaughlin ◽  
Kai Christian Haverila ◽  
Julio Viskovics

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to compare two different sample populations (student and general) to determine the impact of brand community motives on brand community engagement.Design/methodology/approachTwo samples were drawn for the purpose of the current research. The first sample was drawn among the members of various brand communities from a general North American population sample (N = 503). The second sample was drawn purely from students, belonging to a variety of brand communities, from a middle-sized Canadian university (N = 195). Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to analyse the strength, significance and effect sizes of the relationships between brand community motive and engagement constructs.FindingsThe findings indicate that the impact of brand community motives varied by sample population. The information and entertainment motives were significantly related to brand community engagement in both sample populations with roughly equal effect sizes. The social integration motive was again significantly related to the brand community engagement construct in the student sample population – but not for the general North American general population sample. Further, the self-discovery motive and status enhancement motives were significantly related to brand community engagement in the North American sample, but not for the student sample. This indicates significant differences between the two sample populations.Originality/valueThe results of the current research demonstrate that student populations are significantly different from the general population regarding their motives towards brand communities. This indicates that brand community managers need to be aware of the motives of different brand community members and also that they need to exercise caution about utilizing purely student data to make decisions about brand community management.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 710-727 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariola Palazon ◽  
Elena Delgado-Ballester ◽  
Maria Sicilia

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze how brand love is built in the context of brand pages by proposing a model in which brand love depends on relationships ties with other brand consumers (sense of brand community) and with the brand itself (self–brand connection). Design/methodology/approach Information was collected from a sample of 559 members of the community of a well-known baby food brand on Facebook. Data were collected through an online questionnaire sent by the company. Findings Results suggest that both sense of brand community and self–brand connection foster brand love and that self–brand connection exerts a mediating role between sense of brand community and brand love. Furthermore, the effect of brand community on brand love is conditioned by a personal trait of individuals such as brand engagement in self-concept. In addition, this study identifies a new consequence of brand love not previously analyzed in the literature: brand equity. Research limitations/implications A potential shortcoming is the product category analyzed and that the length of membership was not controlled and it may be a moderator between participation and community consequences. Practical implications The key implications are the importance of nurturing relationship ties among brand users and building self–brand connections on brand pages as precursors of brand love. Originality/value The study offers empirical evidence about the mechanism through which brand love is formed on social-media platforms such as Facebook. Furthermore, the authors have demonstrated the relationship between brand love and brand equity, which had not been examined yet in the literature.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 1103-1122
Author(s):  
Daiane Scaraboto ◽  
Stefânia Ordovás de Almeida ◽  
João Pedro dos Santos Fleck

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explain how online brand communities work to support the denormalization of controversial (i.e. illegal yet normalized) gaming practices.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative study was characterized by long-term immersion in an online brand community for Brazilian Xbox gamers. The dataset includes online and offline interactions with community members, interviews, and online archival data.FindingsThis study shows how online brand community members promoted legal gaming in a market where piracy was prevalent. It demonstrates how community members worked to establish coherence; engaged in cognitive participation; developed collective action that extended beyond the community; and reflected on their own work.Research limitations/implicationsThis study identifies online brand communities as a potential ally in combating controversial practices in online gaming; complements individual and behavioral approaches in explaining why consumers adopt controversial practices in online environments; and adds a normalization framework to the toolkit of Internet researchers.Practical implicationsThis study identifies ways in which the potential of online brand communities can be leveraged to reduce consumer adherence to controversial gaming practices through denormalizing these and normalizing alternative practices that may be more desirable to companies and other stakeholders.Originality/valueThis long-term, qualitative study inspired by normalization process theory offers an innovative perspective on the online practices of consumers who engage with a brand in ways that create value for themselves and for the brand.


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