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Title:
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VIRTUAL BRAND COMMUNITY INFLUENCE ON BRAND
LOYALTY: CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS AND TRUST
MEDIATORS |
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Author(s):
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Joshua Doe |
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ISBN:
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978-989-8704-19-1 |
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Editors:
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Piet Kommers and Guo Chao Peng |
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Year:
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2020 |
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Edition:
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Single |
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Keywords:
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Virtual Brand Community, Customer Relationships, Brand Loyalty, Brand Trust |
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Type:
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Full |
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First Page:
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149 |
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Last Page:
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156 |
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Language:
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English |
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Cover:
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Full Contents:
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click to dowload 
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Paper Abstract:
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This study examines whether online brand community affects brand loyalty through mediators such as customer-product
relationship, customer-brand relationship, customer-company relationship, and trust. Data was randomly collected from
720 members of an online brand community page using an online questionnaire and analysed with Structural Equations
Modelling (SEM). The study found that online brand community activities influenced customer-product relationships,
and not customer-brand nor customer-company relationships. None of the customer relationships mediate the link
between online brand community and trust. Trust, however partially mediates between customer-product relationships
and brand loyalty, as well as between customer-company relationships and brand loyalty. Trust of the online community
was confirmed to lead to loyalty. For industry practitioners, these findings support the need to ensure favourable
customer/product related activities, experience and word of mouth within the online community. It also demonstrates the
possibility of brand extension and brand trust at lower costs. The paper contributes to industrial and academic knowledge
of virtual brand community and its effects. |
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