Title
The Value Of Participation In Virtual Consumer Communities On Brand Loyalty
Abstract
Purpose - To examine the effects of consumers' lurking and posting behaviors in virtual consumer communities on specific brand loyalty.Design/methodology/approach - An online survey of a virtual community of Apple computer users was conducted to test a model of involvement, participation, loyalty, trust, and attitudes toward the brand exist in messages within the community.Findings - The causes and effects of lurking and posting differed. Lurking contributed to brand loyalty more than posting did, and the primary purpose of lurking was to look for information regarding product function/performance, instead of satisfying consumers' affective needs.Research limitations/implications - As a result of the limitations in a computer mediated communication environment, virtual consumer communities should be perceived as an arena for weak-tied strangers to communicate for word-of-mouth (Won behavior, rather than as a brand community.Practical implications - Although negative messages in a community can hurt brand image, companies should encourage the establishment of communities about their products and encourage consumers to participate in them.Originality/value - Although the importance of virtual communities has been recognized, few studies have been done to examine the business value of consumer communities. Based on perspectives of brand community and WOM behavior, this paper contributes to virtual community and marketing research by clarifying the effects of consumers' lurking and posting behaviors in a consumer community on brand loyalty.
Year
DOI
Venue
2006
10.1108/10662240610690025
INTERNET RESEARCH
Keywords
Field
DocType
Internet, brand loyalty, buying behaviour
Brand loyalty,Advertising,Public relations,Computer science,Loyalty,Computer-mediated communication,Affect (psychology),Brand awareness,Marketing,Brand management,The Internet,Virtual community
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
16
4
1066-2243
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
61
2.59
11
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Rong-An Shang133119.02
Yu-Chen Chen235916.38
Hsueh-jung Liao3612.59