Brand community integration, participation and commitment: a comparison between consumer-run and company-managed communities

Pedeliento, G., Andreini, D. and Veloutsou, C. (2020) Brand community integration, participation and commitment: a comparison between consumer-run and company-managed communities. Journal of Business Research, 119, pp. 481-494. (doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.10.069)

Abstract

In the past two decades there has been a growth in the rate at which consumers join, companies use, and researchers study brand communities. Given the expansion of brand communities, scholars insistently analyze why individuals join and stay in them. However, no study concurrently examines the links among the members’ integration, participation and commitment to a brand community. Furthermore, research conceive brand communities as homogenous. Whether the feelings and behaviors of members of different kinds of communities, and specifically consumer-run and company-managed brand communities, are comparable is unknown. Using a sample of 2167 consumers of a leading motorcycle brand, this study examines the members’ integration, participation and commitment to consumer-run and company-managed communities. The findings reveal that consumer-run communities stimulate higher levels of integration, participation and commitment than the company-managed communities, but that the mechanisms connecting integration, participation and commitment are invariant across the two types of community.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Veloutsou, Professor Cleopatra
• Authors: Pedeliento, G., Andreini, D., and Veloutsou, C.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
• Journal Name: Journal of Business Research
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0148-2963
• ISSN (Online): 1873-7978
• Published Online: 15 January 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc.
• First Published: First published in Journal of Business Research 119: 481-494
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy