Consumers and Value Co-Creation: The Case of an Online Brand Community
Abstract
This article analyzes value co-creation in online comments posted by consumers and their influence on brand repurchase intention. This applied case study examined a Colombian vehicle brand community on Facebook and investigated the generation and dissemination of positive comments by consumers regarding the brand, especially focusing on the concepts of defense, evangelism, and promotion. This study adopted a quantitative approach, in which the data derived from 140 virtual interviews was processed using SmartPLS software (version 3.0) to conduct a factor analysis and thus determine the validity and reliability of the instrument. Afterward, structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. The data revealed that the variables brand promotion and brand evangelism, in that order, influence repurchase intention. By contrast, brand defense has no influence on post-consumption behavior. This suggests that consumers who are part of a community are more likely to perform evangelization and promotion actions that favor the brand, e.g., sharing information about positive aspects of the brand with other customers, recommending it to new consumers, promoting the generation of positive opinions online and offline, and adopting other behaviors that show a high level of support. Therefore, consumers need to have a vast knowledge of and experience with a brand in order to promote it, which leads to repeat purchases and an early adoption of new releases, which favors brand diversification.
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