Brand love and digital participation: The importance of consumer citizenship in the social media era
Abstract
This paper investigates the intricate relationship between brand love, consumer citizenship behaviour and social media participation. Specifically, it delves into the synergistic effects of these constructs on stimulating dynamic forms of social media engagement. Using data collected from 527 members of a smart scooter brand community, the authors use statistical modelling techniques to identify the sequential process leading to content creation. Consistent with social engagement theory, the findings unequivocally demonstrate that brand love is a strong predictor of consumer citizenship behaviour. Furthermore, the research reveals a continuum of social media participation, progressing from consumption to contribution and culminating in content creation. This progression is initiated by consumer citizenship behaviour and indirectly influenced by brand love. The final model, characterised by robust psychometric properties, explains a substantial 85 per cent of the variance in content creation. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Ching-Fu Chen is a professor at the Department of Transportation and Communication Management Science, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. His work has been published in such scholarly journals as Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Service Management, Computers in Human Behavior, Accident Analysis and Prevention, Transportation Research Part A, Transportation Research Part F, Transport Policy and Journal of Air Transport Management.
Christopher White is a senior lecturer at RMIT University. His research interests focus on the way emotions, psychological needs and motivation impact on judgements of satisfaction, word-of-mouth communication and consumer loyalty. He currently works as an academic and media commentator. His research, which has been published in a variety of leading international journals, has contributed to such disciplines as marketing, hospitality and tourism, higher education, human resource management and information technology.
Yu-Huan Yu holds a master’s degree in transportation management from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. His research interest is shared mobility.
