Creating and developing a firm-hosted virtual brand community forms part of a relationship marketing strategy; therefore, it makes sense to evaluate its effectiveness in terms of relational outcomes. In an attempt to know how marketers can foster the relationship with the brand through virtual communities, we posit and estimate a model of relational efficacy for a firm-managed Facebook brand page (FBP) in which the brand posts created by the firm influence the behavioural engagement of individual users through the utilitarian and hedonic values derived from their interactive experiences within the FBP. The findings highlight that information posts stimulate user behavioural engagement through the utilitarian experiential route. Aside from any experiential route and adopting a more direct path, interaction posts are the main drivers of engagement behaviour. Image posts contribute towards the perception of utility, but in no way affect engagement. Finally, in order to gain a deeper insight, we explore the moderating effect of user brand purchase intensity on the relations posited in the model.

Purpose This paper aims to attempt to understand the extent to which the effect of motivations on purchase intention varies for diverse segments of video gamers (depending on their personality). Design/methodology/approach Information was collected from 511 Spanish video game consumers. Structural equation modeling, clustering and multi-group analysis were then conducted to compare results between segments of gamers. Findings Results show that hedonic, social and mainly addiction motivations lead to purchase intention of game-related products. Moreover, the authors identify a typology of gamer that gives rise to differences in motivations-purchase intention links: Analysts include individuals who are essentially conscientious, prefer inventive or cognitive and simulation games and whose behavior is more influenced by hedonic and social motivations to play; socializers comprise individuals who are mainly extrovert and emotionally stable gamers and who prefer sports and strategy games. The motivations to play that affect their purchase intentions are mainly social; and sentinels include individuals that are unmindful and introvert, prefer inventive, cognitive, sports and simulation games, and whose social motivations drive their purchase intentions. Originality/value There are 2,200 million video gamers around the world, although it is assumed that this vast market is not homogeneous, which has implications for consumer motivations and purchase intention. However, the currently available classifications that address this challenge are rather limited. In this sense, the present paper provides valuable insights into understanding how personality offers a useful variable to segment consumers in the video game industry and how it moderates the effect of motivations on purchase behavior.

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