Managing brands and customer engagement in online brand communities

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Given the dramatic technology-led changes that continue to take place in the marketplace, researchers and practitioners alike are keen to understand the emergence and implications of online brand communities (OBCs). The purpose of this paper is to explore OBCs from both consumer and company perspectives. Design/methodology/approach -The study provides a synthesis of the extant OBC literature to further our understanding of OBCs, and also puts forth future priorities for OBC research. Findings -A conceptual framework is provided that extends our understanding of OBCs and consumer engagement. Four key OBC dimensions (brand orientation, internet-use, funding and governance) are identified and three antecedents (brand-related, social and functional) are proposed of consumer-OBC engagement. Originality/value -This study is the first to explore key dimensions of OBCs, and the differing but related perspectives of the consumers and organizations involved.

Customer Engagement and Loyalty: A Comparative Study Between Service Contexts

“…The individual's propensity to engage has been referred to in the literature in reference to behaviors such as WOM, complaint behavior, or co-creation activities (Bijmolt et al, 2010;Bowden, 2009;Dellarocas & Narayan, 2006;Fuchs, Prandelli, & Schreier, 2010;Hoyer, Chandy, Dorotic, Kra t, & Singh, 2010;Javornik & Mandelli, 2012;Wirtz et al, 2013). Since consumers often vary highly in their willingness to engage, rms will be confronted with engaged-prone customers and "other customers" (Bijmolt et al, 2010).…”

“…In terms of context-based factors, engagement has been studied primarily in online settings, namely virtual brand communities (e.g., Brodie et al, 2013;Gummerus et al, 2012;Lee, Kim, & Kim, 2011;Wirtz et al, 2013), given its conducive, interactive, and relationship centric nature (Tsai & Men, 2013), while other settings remain largely unexplored in academic research. Nowadays, with communication technologies and information systems, it is possible to interact with and among consumers (Brodie et al, 2013).…”

“…They concluded that loyalty is a signi cant characteristic of those who are willing to engage intensely and that engagement with FMCG brands is challenging and speci c. In this sense, Javornik and Mandelli (2012) suggested that it would be important to investigate how CE di ers across di erent industries, and discover how high (or low) is the willingness for CE within di erent product categories. In a study on online brand communities, Wirtz et al (2013) considered that high involvement purchases and product complexity will moderate online brand communities' impact on engagement. The authors called for the need to further investigate how consumers can be segmented according to their propensity for engagement and what drives this engagement, namely comparing "contexts that di er in their focus" (p. 239).…”

Creating Brand Equity by Leveraging Value Creation and Consumer Commitment in Online Brand Communities: A Conceptual Framework

“…These communities affect the societal identities and consumer-brand relationship. At first, activities and participation of these brand communities appear as physical and limited to a specific region but social media has changed the paradigm of participation and engagement in a brand community from regional-level to global-level (Wirtz et al, 2013). The dynamics and outcome of online brand community traits have been studied in some extent but examination of consumer behavioral aspects are still missing in analyzing consumer-brand relationship.…”

Engajamento e Satisfação nos Sites de Internet

“…O engajamento sugere que os membros estão interessados em ajudar outros membros, em participar de atividades conjuntas, em agir por vontade que os liga à comunidade, de forma a aumentar o valor das marcas para si e para os outros (WIRTZ, 2013). De acordo com Brodie et al (2013), a importância da análise do engajamento está em entender como o consumidor se envolve em comunidades de marca específicas e quais as consequências desse compromisso.…”