Building a Social Network for Success

Ansari, Abdul Quaiyum; Stahl, Florian; Heitmann, Mark; Bremer, Lucas

doi:10.1509/jmr.12.0417

Cited by 38 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Consistent with social network theory, the findings suggest that a member's benefits are shaped by his/her network position (Burt, 1992;. As social networks enable direct communication and facilitate mutual interactions among community members, they can leverage this communication capacity to shape a desirable network structure and achieve long-term success (Ansari et al, 2018). However, the relationship between network centrality and information benefits was not significant.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Brand community identification matters: a dual value-creation routes framework

Chang

Huang

et al. 2019

JPBM

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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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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Brand community identification matters: a dual value-creation routes framework

Chang

Huang

et al. 2019

JPBM

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“…Consistent with Saboo, Kumar, and Ramani (2015), we focus on music creators who upload songs on their profiles that can be listened to by other network users. While fans usually browse the platform to discover new music, creators can grow their follower base by engaging in active promotion—as in the setting in Ansari et al (2018). More precisely, unknown creators 3 who aim to build and increase their follower base (their brand communities) can reach out to users by following them or sending them private messages and, if the targets are creators themselves, reposting, commenting, or liking their songs.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Climb or Jump: Status-Based Seeding in User-Generated Content Networks

Lanz¹,

Goldenberg²,

Shapira³

et al. 2019

Journal of Marketing Research

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This article addresses seeding policies in user-generated content networks by challenging the role of influencers in a setting of unpaid endorsements. On such platforms, the content is generated by individuals and firms interested in self-promotion. The authors use data from a worldwide leading music platform to study unknown music creators who aim to increase exposure of their content by expanding their follower base through directing outbound activities to other users. The authors find that the responsiveness of seeding targets strongly declines with status difference; thus, unknown music creators (the majority) do not generally benefit at all from seeding influencers. Instead, they should gradually build their status by targeting low-status users rather than attempt to “jump” by targeting high-status ones. This research extends the seeding literature by introducing the concept of risk to dissemination dynamics in online communications, showing that unknown music creators do not seed specific status levels but rather choose a portfolio of seeding targets while solving a risk versus return trade-off. The authors discuss various managerial implications for optimal seeding in user-generated content networks.

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“…For example, celebrities in advertising can overshadow brands and inhibit brand recall (Erfgen, Zenker and Sattler 2015). Outside the selfie and branding context, social media users often seek popularity within their personal network (Ansari et al 2018) and…”

Section: Consumer Responses To Different Brand Image Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%