Brand Community as an Antecedent to Behavioural Brand Engagement
(A2020-63764)

AUTHORS

Mark Mills, University of Leeds; magnus Hultman, University of Leeds; Aristeidis Theotokis, University of Leeds

KEYWORDS

Brand Community; Brand Engagement; Brand Loyalty

ABSTRACT

Brand engagement has been touted as a fundamental factor in the success and failure of brands. However, much of the research has solely focused upon the consumers’ direct relationship with the brand. The following research explores the role that consumers’ social networks, in the form of brand communities, have upon the development of the behavioural aspect of brand engagement. Two online surveys provided the necessary multilevel data (level 1: consumer / level 2: brand) to demonstrate the significance of brand communities within the development behavioural brand engagement. It shows that identification with the brand community acts as a clear antecedent to all four sub-dimensions of behavioural brand engagement (lifetime value, referral value, influence value and knowledge value). It also suggests a more complicated relationship between attitudinal brand engagement and behavioural brand engagement than previously posited.