The role of identification, participation andattachment in building brand equity insocial networking sites
Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Although Social Networking Sites have become dominant in the lives of many \nconsumers, research on virtual brand communities in the context of Social \nNetworking Sites is scarce. This study focuses on addressing this gap by \ninvestigating how identification with the brand and the brand community, \nparticipation on official brand pages on Facebook, and attachment to the brand \ndevelop and support brand equity in the context of Social Networking Sites. \nParticipation in virtual brand communities has been generally viewed as posting \nand lurking. This study has developed new participation scales to address the \nlimited perspective of participation in the literature. In addition, this study aims \nto investigate the types of members of brand pages on Facebook and the nature \nof their participation. The author developed a model that provides a new \nunderstanding of how brand equity develops in Social Networking Sites. \nThe study was conducted in two stages. Firstly, a pilot study was conducted that \nused focus groups to build new scales to measure participation in Social \nNetworking Sites, which were tested and validated by analysing quantitative data \ncollected from an online and offline survey. Secondly, the main study was \nconducted by collecting data from an online panel of 436 UK consumers. \nStructural equation modelling techniques were then used to assess the validity of \nthe new proposed participation scales and to test the set of interrelationships \namong the proposed variables. \nThe findings indicate that consumer identification with the brand and the \ncommunity has a positive impact on participation on brand pages as well as on \nattachment to the brand. The findings also reveal that brand loyalty, perceived \nquality, willingness to pay a price premium, and word-of-mouth are all predicted \nby brand attachment. Finally, this study has shown that participation is a two \nlevel behaviour that is based on three member types: tourists, minglers, and fans. \nThe model and the new participation scales proposed in this study present a new \nperspective on online consumer behaviour. In addition, the findings of this study \nhave implications for understanding and building consumer-brand relationships \nin Social Networking Sites. \nKeywords: Brand Equity, Brand Identification, Brand Community \nIdentification, Virtual Brand Community, Perceived Quality, Brand Loyalty, \nWord-of-Mouth, Willingness to Pay a Price Premium, Brand Attachment, \nParticipation, Social Networking Sites, Structural Equation Modelling,fACEBOOK
Author: Faris Al Said
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2020222291