IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jobman/v26y2019i3d10.1057_s41262-018-0132-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The levers of engagement: an exploration of governance in an online brand community

Author

Listed:
  • Tony Cooper

    (RMIT University)

  • Constantino Stavros

    (RMIT University)

  • Angela R. Dobele

    (RMIT University)

Abstract

Online brand communities represent an increasingly important touchpoint for establishing effective consumer–brand relationships. Growing consumer empowerment and an absence of empirical research on the subject, however, have left many firms struggling to balance the often contradictory goals of community propagation for corporate gain with the autonomy demanded by such groups. This exploratory study investigates the management of this tension between control and engagement in a single Facebook brand community to understand how a firm can balance community goals with corporate needs. Our analysis of more than 13,000 Facebook comments and 2988 company posts reveals that online brand community governance can be conceptualised as a continuum. We identify three critical levers that the case study firm manipulated to establish equilibrium between commercial and community imperatives. The levers represent appealing, consulting and affiliating actions and are manifest in a range of social media marketing tactics exhibited by the company which we examine in the context of engagement theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Tony Cooper & Constantino Stavros & Angela R. Dobele, 2019. "The levers of engagement: an exploration of governance in an online brand community," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(3), pages 240-254, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jobman:v:26:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1057_s41262-018-0132-2
    DOI: 10.1057/s41262-018-0132-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41262-018-0132-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41262-018-0132-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berthon, Pierre R. & Pitt, Leyland F. & Plangger, Kirk & Shapiro, Daniel, 2012. "Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 261-271.
    2. Scarpi, Daniele, 2010. "Does Size Matter? An Examination of Small and Large Web-Based Brand Communities," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 14-21.
    3. Kolbe, Richard H & Burnett, Melissa S, 1991. "Content-Analysis Research: An Examination of Applications with Directives for Improving Research Reliability and Objectivity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 18(2), pages 243-250, September.
    4. Liao, Junyun & Huang, Minxue & Xiao, Bangming, 2017. "Promoting continual member participation in firm-hosted online brand communities: An organizational socialization approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 92-101.
    5. Gensler, Sonja & Völckner, Franziska & Liu-Thompkins, Yuping & Wiertz, Caroline, 2013. "Managing Brands in the Social Media Environment," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 242-256.
    6. Kozinets, Robert V., 1999. "E-tribalized marketing?: the strategic implications of virtual communities of consumption," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 252-264, June.
    7. Veloutsou, Cleopatra & Moutinho, Luiz, 2009. "Brand relationships through brand reputation and brand tribalism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 314-322, March.
    8. Labrecque, Lauren I. & vor dem Esche, Jonas & Mathwick, Charla & Novak, Thomas P. & Hofacker, Charles F., 2013. "Consumer Power: Evolution in the Digital Age," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 257-269.
    9. de Vries, Lisette & Gensler, Sonja & Leeflang, Peter S.H., 2012. "Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 83-91.
    10. Kassarjian, Harold H, 1977. "Content Analysis in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 4(1), pages 8-18, June.
    11. Davis, Robert & Piven, Inna & Breazeale, Michael, 2014. "Conceptualizing the brand in social media community: The five sources model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 468-481.
    12. Toufaily, Elissar & Souiden, Nizar & Ladhari, Riadh, 2013. "Consumer trust toward retail websites: Comparison between pure click and click-and-brick retailers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 538-548.
    13. Hollebeek, Linda D. & Glynn, Mark S. & Brodie, Roderick J., 2014. "Consumer Brand Engagement in Social Media: Conceptualization, Scale Development and Validation," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 149-165.
    14. Sorescu, Alina & Frambach, Ruud T. & Singh, Jagdip & Rangaswamy, Arvind & Bridges, Cheryl, 2011. "Innovations in Retail Business Models," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(S1), pages 3-16.
    15. Manfred Bruhn & Verena Schoenmueller & Daniela B. Schäfer, 2012. "Are social media replacing traditional media in terms of brand equity creation?," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(9), pages 770-790, August.
    16. Barbara Carroll & Aaron Ahuvia, 2006. "Some antecedents and outcomes of brand love," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 79-89, April.
    17. Fournier, Susan & Avery, Jill, 2011. "The uninvited brand," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 193-207, May.
    18. Brodie, Roderick J. & Ilic, Ana & Juric, Biljana & Hollebeek, Linda, 2013. "Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: An exploratory analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 105-114.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shaun M. Powell, 2019. "Journal of Brand Management: year end review 2019," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(6), pages 615-620, November.
    2. Matti J. Haverila & Kai Haverila & Caitlin McLaughlin & Mehak Arora, 2023. "The influence of the number of brand community memberships on customer centric measures," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 5-20, March.
    3. Duygu Akdevelioglu & Selcan Kara & Victor Perotti, 2024. "The impact of consumer personality and social network position on brand community engagement," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 31(3), pages 235-250, May.
    4. Keyoor Purani & Krishnan Jeesha, 2022. "Community based brand equity as brand culture: advancing brand equity conceptualization for a connected world," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 12(1), pages 52-70, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wondwesen Tafesse & Anders Wien, 2017. "A framework for categorizing social media posts," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1284390-128, January.
    2. Rosenthal, Benjamin & Brito, Eliane P.Z., 2017. "How virtual brand community traces may increase fan engagement in brand pages," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 375-384.
    3. Ramaswamy, Venkat & Ozcan, Kerimcan, 2016. "Brand value co-creation in a digitalized world: An integrative framework and research implications," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 93-106.
    4. Agostino Vollero & Daniele Dalli & Alfonso Siano, 2016. "Brand negotiation and brand management. An actor-network theory perspective," MERCATI & COMPETITIVIT?, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(4), pages 23-41.
    5. Abdulla H. Fetais & Raed S. Algharabat & Abdullah Aljafari & Nripendra P. Rana, 2023. "Do Social Media Marketing Activities Improve Brand Loyalty? An Empirical Study on Luxury Fashion Brands," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 795-817, April.
    6. Coelho, Pedro Simões & Rita, Paulo & Santos, Zélia Raposo, 2018. "On the relationship between consumer-brand identification, brand community, and brand loyalty," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 101-110.
    7. Roma, Paolo & Aloini, Davide, 2019. "How does brand-related user-generated content differ across social media? Evidence reloaded," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 322-339.
    8. Carsten D. Schultz, 2016. "Insights from consumer interactions on a social networking site: Findings from six apparel retail brands," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 26(3), pages 203-217, August.
    9. Rydén, Pernille & Ringberg, Torsten & Wilke, Ricky, 2015. "How Managers' Shared Mental Models of Business–Customer Interactions Create Different Sensemaking of Social Media," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-16.
    10. Margurite Hook & Stacey Baxter & Alicia Kulczynski, 2018. "Antecedents and consequences of participation in brand communities: a literature review," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(4), pages 277-292, July.
    11. Algharabat, Raed & Rana, Nripendra P. & Alalwan, Ali Abdallah & Baabdullah, Abdullah & Gupta, Ashish, 2020. "Investigating the antecedents of customer brand engagement and consumer-based brand equity in social media," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    12. Ulrike Baumöl & Linda Hollebeek & Reinhard Jung, 2016. "Dynamics of customer interaction on social media platforms," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 26(3), pages 199-202, August.
    13. Machado, Joana César & Vacas-de-Carvalho, Leonor & Azar, Salim L. & André, Ana Raquel & dos Santos, Barbara Pires, 2019. "Brand gender and consumer-based brand equity on Facebook: The mediating role of consumer-brand engagement and brand love," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 376-385.
    14. Schaefers, Tobias & Falk, Tomas & Kumar, Ashish & Schamari, Julia, 2021. "More of the same? Effects of volume and variety of social media brand engagement behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 282-294.
    15. Muhammad Waqas & Zalfa Laili Binti Hamzah & Noor Akma Mohd Salleh, 2021. "Customer experience: a systematic literature review and consumer culture theory-based conceptualisation," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(1), pages 135-176, February.
    16. Eigenraam, Anniek W. & Eelen, Jiska & van Lin, Arjen & Verlegh, Peeter W.J., 2018. "A Consumer-based Taxonomy of Digital Customer Engagement Practices," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 102-121.
    17. Simon, Françoise & Tossan, Vesselina, 2018. "Does brand-consumer social sharing matter? A relational framework of customer engagement to brand-hosted social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 175-184.
    18. Pedeliento, Giuseppe & Andreini, Daniela & Veloutsou, Cleopatra, 2020. "Brand community integration, participation and commitment: A comparison between consumer-run and company-managed communities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 481-494.
    19. Kick, Markus, 2015. "Social Media Research: A Narrative Review," EconStor Preprints 182506, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    20. Bazi, Saleh & Filieri, Raffaele & Gorton, Matthew, 2020. "Customers’ motivation to engage with luxury brands on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 223-235.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jobman:v:26:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1057_s41262-018-0132-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.