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Global Business Review
DOI: 10.1177/097215090700800202
2007; 8; 205 Global Business Review
Karan Chaudhry and Venkat R. Krishnan
Brand Community: An Experimental Study
Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility and Transformational Leadership on
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There has been a growing interest in the field
of brand community. It is felt that strong brand
communities can be of tremendous value to
organizations by generating heightened cus-
tomer loyalty towards their brands. How-
ever, research in the area of brand community
is still at a nascent stage. In this study, we
examined the impact of corporate social
Karan Chaudhry is a student at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. E-mail: karanc@stanford.edu
Venkat R. Krishnan is Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai
600015. Website: http://www.rkuenkat.org
Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility and Transformational
Leadership on Brand Community: An Experimental Study
Karan Chaudhry
Venkat R. Krishnan
Not much work has been done to study the impact of various organizational variables on brand communities
around various brands and consequently we have limited knowledge on how to build brand communities.
Strong brand communities can be of tremendous value to organizations by generating increased customer
loyalty towards their brands. This study attempts to examine the impact of corporate social responsibility
and transformational leadership on brand community. The study employed a scenario based 2 × 2 experimental
design, with corporate social responsibility and transformational leadership as the manipulated variables.
The sample consisted of 118 graduate students doing the first year of their MBA programme in a leading
management institute in India. Due to lack of availability of any standard measure, an instrument was
developed to measure brand communities. Results of 2 × 2 factored analysis of variance show that brand
community is enhanced by both corporate social responsibility and transformational leadership. The
implications of these findings for firms and their top management are discussed.
responsibility and transformational leader-
ship on brand communities. Corporate social
responsibility is fast gaining importance as
more and more firms realize its value. There
is evidence to suggest that socially respon-
sible actions of a firm enhance the brand
image of the firms’ products as well as the
overall image of the firm. Hence, a positive
GLOBAL BUSINESS REVIEW, 8:2 (2007): 205–220
SAGE Publications Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore
DOI: 10.1177/097215090700800202
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206
Karan Chaudhry and Venkat R. Krishnan
Global Business Review, 8:2 (2007): 205–220
relationship can be expected between
corporate social responsibility and brand
community.
Leadership qualities of managers have
been a major area of interest in organizations
across the world. Transformational leaders
help followers see the importance of tran-
scending their own self-interest for the sake
of the mission and vision of their group or
organization (Gardner and Avolio 1998;
Shamir, House and Arthur 1993). Keeping
this in mind, we felt that transformational
leadership would be positively linked to
brand community.
Literature Review
Brand Community
A brand community is a specialized, non-
geographically bound community, based on
a structured set of social relationships among
admirers of a brand (Muniz and O’Guinn
2001: p. 412). It, like other communities, is
characterized by qualities like shared con-
sciousness, rituals and traditions, and sense
of moral responsibility. However, as it is cen-
tred around a branded good or service, every-
thing is situated within a commercial and
mass mediated ethos (Muniz and O’Guinn
2001).
Bender (1978) described shared con-
sciousness as a feeling of ‘we-ness’ among
members. Shared consciousness refers to the
inter-personal bonding, shared attitudes and
perceived similarity between members of the
community, and distinguishes them from
others who are not a part of the community
(Weber [1922] 1978). Rituals and traditions,
like celebrating the history of the brand, ad-
vertisements, and sharing brand stories, are
the vital social processes that evolve from the
shared consumption experiences with the
brand. They spread the community’s shared
history, culture, and consciousness, within
and beyond the community. Moral respon-
sibility refers to the feeling of responsibility
or obligation among members, towards the
community as a whole, and to its individual
members. It spurs collective action leading
to enhanced group cohesiveness (Muniz and
O’Guinn 2001). Communities can be built
around any brand ranging from expensive
Harley Davidson to low cost Snapple. These
generate intense loyalty based on real emo-
tion and the members act as ambassadors of
the brand. Contrary to the loyalty schemes,
which lead to erosion of brand image in the
long-term by lending commodity status,
brand communities strengthen the brand
image. Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) added that
communities are most likely to form around
visible publicly consumed brands with a
strong image, rich heritage and threatening
competition. The last aspect generates ‘oppo-
sitional brand loyalty’ among members, by
further uniting the brand and its community
members, leading to enhanced community
experience and feeling of oneness. Identifica-
tion with brand community leads to positive
consequences such as greater community en-
gagement (Algesheimer, Dholakia and
Herrmann 2005).
Cova and Pace (2006) showed that the vir-
tual community that gathers around a con-
venience product brand showed a new form
of sociality and customer empowerment; it
was not based on interaction between peers,
but more on personal self-exhibition in front
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Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility and Transformational Leadership on Brand Community
207
Global Business Review, 8:2 (2007): 205–220
of other consumers through the marks and
rituals linked to the brand. The study focused
on a mass-marketed convenience product,
while the literature on brand community has
traditionally focused on communities born
around niche or luxury brands like Harley
Davidson, Mercedes and Saab. Prykop and
Heitmann (2006) developed a procedure on
how to design mobile brand communities
according to perceived consumer value. They
built on the four constituting elements of a
community, which are member entities,
shared interest, common space of interaction
and relation, and combined them with the
specific characteristics of the mobile channel,
which are location awareness, ubiquity,
identification and immediacy.
Subcultures versus Brand Community
Schouten and McAlexander’s (1995) ethnog-
raphy study on Harley Davidson riders
demonstrated that riders derived an under-
standing of their brand through interaction
with other users. This becomes a way of life
or a subculture. Though a subculture has cer-
tain similarities with brand community, it is
not the same as brand community. Subcul-
tures build attitudes contrary to mainstream
ideology whereas brand communities em-
brace it (Muniz & O’Guinn 2001).
Brand communities differ from each other
on geographic concentration, social context
and temporality. Brand communities build
customer relationship with the brand, firm,
product and fellow customers. Research at
Jeep Jamborees, Camp Jeep and Jeep 101
brand fests revealed that persons who ex-
hibited weaker connection with the brand,
firm, product and fellow customers before
the fest, became significantly more connected
after it. The overall feeling of integration in
the Jeep brand community also increased.
This provides marketers with a powerful
tool to strengthen brand communities by
facilitating shared customer experiences
(McAlexander, Schouten and Koening 2002).
Brand Communities and Internet The
Internet has become a powerful marketing
medium in recent times. To build online com-
munities, a firm has to build a site that pro-
vides participants with a forum for exchange
of ideas, along with a sense of place with codes
of behaviour. The firm has to encourage
participation by as many people as possible
to promote dialogue and relationships. This
allows marketers to follow consumers’ reac-
tions and responses towards brands. Greater
communication and interaction leads to
better feedback and sense of community. This
interactive online media will enable mar-
keters to predict consumer behaviour with
unprecedented accuracy and efficiency. One
sensitive issue for organizations is to decide
on how much control to exert over the con-
tent (McWilliam 2000).
Areas of concern Brand communities repre-
sent a form of consumer agency. They enable
the consumers to have greater voice, more
information and wider social benefits (Muniz
and O’Guinn 2001). However, there exist some
areas of concern. A strong brand community
has the potential to threaten the marketer by
rejecting marketing efforts and resisting
product changes. Moreover, online commu-
nities can pose rumour control problems.
Competitors can easily snoop on other brand
communities and exploit their internal com-
munication to subvert their values and
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208
Karan Chaudhry and Venkat R. Krishnan
Global Business Review, 8:2 (2007): 205–220
attitudes. In addition, a strong brand com-
munity has the potential to signal brand mar-
ginality wherein the real essence of the brand
might be lost (Muniz & O’Guinn 2001).
Goldman (2000) goes to the extent of calling
the whole concept of brand community
‘phony’ as there are no checks and punish-
ments and the whole concept is unrealistic-
ally upbeat and supportive.
Leadership abilities in the organization
would play a crucial role in determining the
success of efforts targeted towards creation
and maintenance of brand communities.
Transformational leadership could address
some of the above-mentioned concerns, as
transformational leaders are known to em-
phasize collective identity and place the col-
lective goals at the top of their priorities. We
look at transformational leadership in the
next section to develop a better understand-
ing of its impact on brand community.
Transformational Leadership Transforma-
tional leadership occurs when leaders and
followers raise one another to higher levels
of motivation. Transformational leaders
motivate followers to work towards self-
actualization needs and transcendental goals
(Bass 1998; Bass, Avolio and Goodheim 1987).
Transformational leadership theory describes
how a leader influences followers to make
self-sacrifices, commit to difficult objectives
and achieve more than expected (Ardichvili
and Gasparishvili 2001). Transformational
leadership brings about a complete transfor-
mation of followers over a period. Krishnan
(2005) showed that relationship duration en-
hances the effect of transformational leader-
ship on follower’s terminal value system
congruence and identification (cognitive
outcomes), but not on attachment and af-
fective commitment (affective outcomes).
According to Bass (1985), superior per-
formance beyond normal expectations is pos-
sible only by transforming follower’s values,
attitudes and motives to a higher level of
arousal and maturity. Transformational
leaders exert long-term transformational
influence over followers and provide ethical
leadership by employing empowering strat-
egies rather than control strategies. Em-
powering strategies increase the follower’s
capacity for self-determination (Bass and
Steidlmeier 1999; Kanungo and Mendonca
1996). According to Keeley (1995), transfor-
mational leaders can be very effective ethical
leaders. Transformational leaders aim at
satisfying all the stakeholders in the organ-
ization. They try to balance the interests of
the employees as well as the employer ra-
ther than sacrificing the individuals’ interests
for the sake of the organization (Bass 1997).
Transformational leadership is characterized
by qualities such as charisma, inspiration,
intellectual stimulation and individualized
consideration.
Over the last decade, empirical evidence
has emerged linking transformational
leadership to the implementation of large-
scale innovation programmes (Leithwood,
Tomlinson and Genge 1996). To bring about
change, authentic transformational leader-
ship fosters the modal values of honesty,
loyalty and fairness as well as the end values
of justice, equality and human rights (Bass
and Steidlmeier 1999). According to Bass
(1985), transformational leadership is better
for non-routine situations. Furthermore,
Pawar and Eastman (1997) proposed that
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