Determinants of online brand communities’ and millennials’ characteristics: a social influence perspective

Online communities have evolved to allow larger numbers of individuals to interact with other users to form a collective virtual environment influenced by members within the community. Existing studies on online brand communities (OBCs) tied millennials’ participation and interactions to a unidimens...

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Main Authors: Ozuem, Wilson, Willis, Michelle, Howell, Kerry, Lancaster, Geoff, Ng, Raye
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/8449/1/Psychology%20and%20Marketing_OBC%20social%20influence%20-%202021_Willis_M.pdf
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author Ozuem, Wilson
Willis, Michelle
Howell, Kerry
Lancaster, Geoff
Ng, Raye
author_facet Ozuem, Wilson
Willis, Michelle
Howell, Kerry
Lancaster, Geoff
Ng, Raye
author_sort Ozuem, Wilson
collection LMU
description Online communities have evolved to allow larger numbers of individuals to interact with other users to form a collective virtual environment influenced by members within the community. Existing studies on online brand communities (OBCs) tied millennials’ participation and interactions to a unidimensional view. Specifically, OBCs scholars generally aggregate individual millennials’ participation and commitment, ignoring the variance among the demographic cohort. Our exploration challenges not only the existing ensemble interpretation within studies of OBC but also the characterisation of millennials’ burgeoning participation in OBCs. Unlike other competing epistemologies, the authors developed a conceptual framework that links a holistic set of OBCs’ characteristics (brand sentiment, identification with source, affirmative experience, conspicuous effect) to consumers’ perceptions in the fashion sector. Drawing on social influence theory along with a constructivist perspective, we conducted fine‐grained in‐depth interviews to explore millennials’ participation in online communities and brand perceptions in the fashion industry. The main findings reveal four categories of customer engagement in OBCs (bias situators, sugar‐coaters, rationalisers, judgmentalists). These key categories are explored to create a framework for future research in this area, and further contribute to the field of online brand engagement, particularly in the fashion industry.
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spelling oai:repository.londonmet.ac.uk:84492023-04-05T15:08:25Z https://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/8449/ Determinants of online brand communities’ and millennials’ characteristics: a social influence perspective Ozuem, Wilson Willis, Michelle Howell, Kerry Lancaster, Geoff Ng, Raye 300 Social sciences 650 Management & auxiliary services Online communities have evolved to allow larger numbers of individuals to interact with other users to form a collective virtual environment influenced by members within the community. Existing studies on online brand communities (OBCs) tied millennials’ participation and interactions to a unidimensional view. Specifically, OBCs scholars generally aggregate individual millennials’ participation and commitment, ignoring the variance among the demographic cohort. Our exploration challenges not only the existing ensemble interpretation within studies of OBC but also the characterisation of millennials’ burgeoning participation in OBCs. Unlike other competing epistemologies, the authors developed a conceptual framework that links a holistic set of OBCs’ characteristics (brand sentiment, identification with source, affirmative experience, conspicuous effect) to consumers’ perceptions in the fashion sector. Drawing on social influence theory along with a constructivist perspective, we conducted fine‐grained in‐depth interviews to explore millennials’ participation in online communities and brand perceptions in the fashion industry. The main findings reveal four categories of customer engagement in OBCs (bias situators, sugar‐coaters, rationalisers, judgmentalists). These key categories are explored to create a framework for future research in this area, and further contribute to the field of online brand engagement, particularly in the fashion industry. Wiley 2021-03-05 Article PeerReviewed text en cc_by_nc_nd_4 https://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/8449/1/Psychology%20and%20Marketing_OBC%20social%20influence%20-%202021_Willis_M.pdf Ozuem, Wilson, Willis, Michelle, Howell, Kerry, Lancaster, Geoff and Ng, Raye (2021) Determinants of online brand communities’ and millennials’ characteristics: a social influence perspective. Psychology & Marketing, 38 (5). pp. 794-818. ISSN 1520-6793 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/mar.21470 10.1002/mar.21470 10.1002/mar.21470
spellingShingle 300 Social sciences
650 Management & auxiliary services
Ozuem, Wilson
Willis, Michelle
Howell, Kerry
Lancaster, Geoff
Ng, Raye
Determinants of online brand communities’ and millennials’ characteristics: a social influence perspective
title Determinants of online brand communities’ and millennials’ characteristics: a social influence perspective
title_full Determinants of online brand communities’ and millennials’ characteristics: a social influence perspective
title_fullStr Determinants of online brand communities’ and millennials’ characteristics: a social influence perspective
title_full_unstemmed Determinants of online brand communities’ and millennials’ characteristics: a social influence perspective
title_short Determinants of online brand communities’ and millennials’ characteristics: a social influence perspective
title_sort determinants of online brand communities and millennials characteristics a social influence perspective
topic 300 Social sciences
650 Management & auxiliary services
url https://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/8449/1/Psychology%20and%20Marketing_OBC%20social%20influence%20-%202021_Willis_M.pdf
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