Purpose – Customer engagement is a concept that has emerged recently to capture customers' total set of behavioral activities toward a firm. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of customer engagement behaviors on perceived relationship benefits and relationship outcomes.Design/methodology/approach – An online survey of members of a gaming Facebook brand community, resulting in 276 usable responses from gaming customers.Findings – Customer engagement was divided into “Community Engagement Behaviors” (CEB) and “Transactional Engagement Behaviors” (TEB). In addition, three relationship benefits were identified: social benefits, entertainment benefits and economic benefits. The engagement behaviors largely influenced the benefits received. Furthermore, the mediation analysis results show that the influence of CEB on satisfaction is partially mediated by social benefits and entertainment benefits, while the effect of TEB on satisfaction is fully mediated through the same benefits. The effect of CE...

Customer engagement in a Facebook brand community

Purpose – 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.

Managing brands and customer engagement in online brand communities

Purpose – Brand fan pages on social networks have become very popular online services. However, empirical research on fan pages is still in its infancy. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of fan pages on the customer-brand relationship and what motivates users to participate.Design/methodology/approach – For this a framework was developed based on classical concepts of use and gratification theory, customer engagement, and involvement theory. The model is tested using a multi-step approach of qualitative and quantitative methods.Findings – The paper can show a significant influence from online service usage behavior on the fan page on the customer-brand relationship. Furthermore, the paper identifies different values such as functional and hedonic content as drivers of fan-page participation.Research limitations/implications – The results are limited by the used data set, which is not representative for all industries and is cross-sectional. Further research could build up a database over a longitudinal time frame in different industries. The results are interesting for theory and practice. They confirm the positive effect of integration and engagement in general and show that fan pages are more than just tools to connect brand fans. They are also instruments for gaining new fans. Originality/value – The present study is the first study that not only shows the effect of fan pages on customer behavior, but also analyses the motives for participation and the crucial constructs to manage them successfully.

How to Transform Consumers into Fans of Your Brand

Purpose – Brand fan pages on social networks have become very popular online services. However, empirical research on fan pages is still in its infancy. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of fan pages on the customer‐brand relationship and what motivates users to participate.Design/methodology/approach – For this a framework was developed based on classical concepts of use and gratification theory, customer engagement, and involvement theory. The model is tested using a multi‐step approach of qualitative and quantitative methods.Findings – The paper can show a significant influence from online service usage behavior on the fan page on the customer‐brand relationship. Furthermore, the paper identifies different values such as functional and hedonic content as drivers of fan‐page participation.Research limitations/implications – The results are limited by the used data set, which is not representative for all industries and is cross‐sectional. Further research could build up a...

How to transform consumers into fans of your brand

https://cyberleninka.org/article/n/1036025.pdf

Brand communities embedded in social networks.

The majority of brand community literature deals with the exploration of the nature of brand communities and the measurement of community effects. However, existing literature on how to implement and to manage company-run brand communities is rare. In the present article, we conceptualize drivers and consequences of consumer brand community participation and empirically test our model with a data set of 1,025 members of a virtual brand community. Results indicate that identification with community, satisfaction with community, and degree of influence explain most of the variance in consumer participation. Moreover, positive influences of participation on recommendation behavior, brand image of the community sponsor, and intention to continue community membership can be confirmed.

Vivian Hartleb

Papers

How to Make Brand Communities Work: Antecedents and Consequences of Consumer Participation

An Empirical Comparison of Ambushing and Sponsorship Effects: The Case of FIFA World Cup 2006™ in Germany