Abstract
Purpose: The main purpose of
is to examine the effects of social media-based
(
) markers on
-based
(
).
,
evaluates the mediating
of
, and moderating
of
.
Design
methodology
approach:
collected data from a questionnaire survey with the
are the members of
in Vietnam on Facebook (XCVF).
, 512 valid and usable questionnaires were tested by applying structural equation modelling (SEM) approach.
Findings: The results showed that three components of
markers significant influence
aspects of
.
,
plays the mediating
in the
of shared consciousness, ritual and traditions and
.
, the influence of
on
is stronger for women in
with men.
limitations
implications: The sample selected
for only members of XCVF, which may have an inadequate view in
with other
communities.
can eliminate some other important variables that can contribute to
.
Originality
:
is among the
works that have focused on the
of
markers on
, the mediating
of
, as well as the moderating
of
.
Keywords: social media;
;
– based
;
markers;
.
1. Introduction
“
is a
making effective use of online
marketing.
has gained the benefit of a new media era. “Born for enthusiasm” is the
concept and behind the large sales figures, as the company is very successful in fostering a
culture. Its fans, self-proclaimed as “MI fans” which sounds like
mifenan alkaloid narcotic drug extracted from opium; a powerful, habit-forming narcotic used to relieve pain
(米粉 rice noodle) in Chinese, have become an important force making the
popular.
stimulates its fans’
and satisfies their self-realization needs by constructing a virtual space, MIUI (MI User Interface) forum”
The advance of technology in the Internet age has totally changed our daily life and firms’ activities as well.
, with the
of social media, marketing activities are much more complicated in
with conventional marketing (
et al., 2016). Recently, the concept “social media-based
” (
) has frequently used to express
created on the social media platforms
as Facebook, Weibo (
et al., 2014).
relates to specialized, non-geographically bound
, based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a
(Muniz and O'
, 2001). Nowadays, with the evolution of Web 2.0 platforms, customers’
from passive in Web 1.0
to active.
, social media supports
content themselves as called “user-generated content” (Kumar et al., 2016) or
co-creation
(Hidayanti et al., 2018) that was confirmed as the determinants of word-of-mouth (Chu and Kim, 2011), which in turn, influenced on
engagement, buyer-seller
(Sashi, 2012a), as well as
,
and purchase intention (Jamali and Khan, 2018).
, previous
indicated that
stimulated
satisfaction,
capabilities, and firms performances as well (Clark et al., 2017).
, owing to
,
can
participate in the
co-creation process (Merz et al., 2018). But previous
showed the necessary to
the
of
in the marketing field because of its
for the firms in the Industry 4.0 (Merz et al., 2018).
comprises people who like specific
(s) of firms, are the members of the
created by firms or by the subsidiary/ agent of firms in a country (Munnukka et al., 2015). With
important significance,
has recently gained great attention from marketing scholars and practitioners (Munnukka et al., 2015;
et al., 2014; Hur et al., 2011;
and Rahman, 2018; Islam et al., 2018).
, (
and Rahman, 2018) asserted principal antecedents and the outcomes of
as well as the possible moderators and mediators. They
showed a lot of
gaps and called for
in terms of other possible determinants and/ or outcomes. In the same line, other researchers stated the
of deeper evaluating the effects of customers’
and
behaviormanner of acting or controlling yourself
on
(
et al., 2016; Munnukka et al., 2015).
refers to the customers’
regarding the overall betterment of a
in
with other related brands (Hassan and Luis V. Casaló Ariño, 2015).
is needed for
and
because it is crucial for companies in building and maintaining the competitive advantage of their brands in new technology based business as suggested by (Palazon et al., 2018),
& Rahman, 2018. Based on the literature review,
and utilize
aspects of
, namely,
and
.
, the
of social media
firms to establish and manage their
. Through
firms can understand more about their customers’ demands or suggestions to optimize their products, their adaptability and competitiveness (Cui and Wu, 2015; Kang et al., 2016; Carlson et al., 2018).
,
facilitates customers in searching and understanding information concerning products and services of the firms, as well as experiences, feedbacks of other customers. Well managed
can lead customers to be
to the firms (Poulis et al., 2018) to form citizenship
behaviormanner of acting or controlling yourself
.
, a lot of firms have not adequately apprehended the
of
yet.
, most customers still lack the willingness to participate actively (
and Rahman, 2018; Jain et al., 2018; Kaur et al., 2018).
, previous scholars regard the social, economic, psychological and functional motivation of customers as the factors influencing
(Poulis et al., 2018; Godey et al., 2016), but overlooking the impact of
.
is not innate, but can be influenced by the markers of
and establishing a sense to firm
. So that, the
of
should proceed from the markers of
, and in-depth analysis with the mediating
of
.
shaping a systematic analysis, the
has important significance for obtaining
. Recently, (Hook et al., 2018) suggested that future researchers need to
long – term consequences of
participation. They
indicated the necessary to investigate the terms “
markers” and “
” together, rather than researching in separation. In the same vein, (
& Rahman, 2018) showed that it is necessary to
examine the new mediating variables
as
.
, because of the
in biology,
indicated the necessary to differ in
behaviorsmanner of acting or controlling yourself
between male and female customers (Correa et al., 2010).
,
work attempts to answer to the
questions as
:
RQ1: How do
markers influence
?
RQ2: Which component of
markers is more significant related to specific aspects of
?
RQ3: How does
brand Suggestion
a brand community commitment
mediate the
between
markers and
?
RQ4: Does
moderate the
between
markers and
?
To answer the above questions,
paper proposes and empirical tests a
model to clarify the correlation between
markers and
directly and indirectly via
and
.
The remains of
as
.
starts with theoretical background and
design, which followed by the data analysis results and conclusion.
2. Theoretical background and hypothesis
2.1. Social media based
The notion of
was proposed by (Muniz and O'
, 2001) and relates to the organized social
based on
admirers, a specialized
organization without geographical boundaries.
concept provides a better way to solve the
challenges of one-to-one
management and
classification faced by firms. With the rapid
of
which is one of the most important innovations of human life, the
is easier than ever in terms of
, geographical restrictions. Its application forms and implementation technologies are constantly evolving. Many firms are gradually building
on the basis of computer cyberspace, social media and other virtual platforms.
one hand,
is the combination of social media and
(Algesheimer et al., 2005) or
communities created on the platforms of social media (
et al., 2014; Kaur et al., 2018; Zaglia, 2013).
the other hand, (Arnone et al., 2010) indicated that
relates to customers gathered together because of similar
preferences or ideas, and sharing
experience as well as values through social media platforms.
a wide
of social media platforms, scholars all agreed that shared consciousness, shared rituals and traditions and obligation to
are the components of
(
et al., 2014; Muniz and O'
, 2001;
et al., 2016).
,
inherits their assertion to test the
with their consequences. In which, shared consciousness relates to connection among members of a
that decide the difference between its members with outsiders (Zhou et al., 2012).
it, shared rituals and traditions refers to the social responsibility of members towards the
and its members (Muniz and O'
, 2001).
, obligation to
indicates that members think about and act for the benefits of the
and its members.
can explain the reason of willingness to mutual help of members in a
(Muniz and O'
, 2001).
, previous researchers considered that
is based on a series of relationships among members with brands, products and firms to form four kinds of
(
et al., 2016; James H.
et al., 2002). In the reality, many firms have established
not only for establishing and maintaining the above four relationships and
stimulating members to share
experience and innovative ideas to improve the
of products or services (Casaló et al., 2010; See-To and Ho, 2014). Because through the knowledge acquisition
social media, firms can improve the
innovation strategy (Bang et al., 2015).
,
influences on
satisfaction, trust, and
with the
(Algesheimer et al., 2005; Zhou et al., 2012; Tsai et al., 2012). Obviously,
has some negative effects, called “dark side”,
as leading to normative pressure on members, thereby reducing
identification, recommendation and participation as well (Poulis et al., 2018).
2.2.
– based
refers to the
of the customers about the overall betterment of a
when they compare to other related brands (Hassan and Luis V. Casaló Ariño, 2015). In the perspective of customers,
relates to
(
et al., 2000; Datta et al., 2018). That means customers acquaint with certain
and revoke uniqueness of
as its name, logo and motto (Torres et al., 2015). These factors stimulate
customers’ Suggestion
the customers’ perception
of the
and other factors of the
as its
or positioning (Keller, 1993).
is an interesting and important topic that recently has gained the attention of researchers and practitioners in marketing (Poulis et al., 2018;
et al., 2000; Datta et al., 2018). But to date, its dimensions are still
in disputablenot open to question; obviously true
.
, (Godey et al., 2016) divided
based
in
and
image; (Chahal and Rani, 2017) considered
,
image and
as the dimensions of
;
,
, perceived
of
and
association (Sasmita and Norazah Mohd Suki, 2015);
,
and
(Guzmán and Davis, 2017);
associations,
image, perceived
and
credibility (Vogel and Watchravesringkan, 2017). Among the different approaches, most of researchers highlighted that
combines
main components, namely,
and
(Poulis et al., 2018). For
reason, by inheriting and utilizing these
dimensions of
,
develops and tests a new framework to clarify the related relationships.
In which,
relates to the power of
existence and
in the
’s head and thinking (Molinillo et al., 2017).
, customers can easily distinguish a specific
among other brands in term of logo, name and motto.
can be created and maintained through marketing communication
as advertising or through social media platforms (Barreda et al., 2015; Sasmita and Norazah Mohd Suki, 2015; Bruhn et al., 2012; Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2014)
Along with
,
relates to the customers’
choice of a specific
among other brands (
et al., 2000). Previous
confirmed that
customers even may not consider buying other brands (Aaker, 1996) or selecting as their default preferred
(
et al., 2000). In a sense,
refers to one of the main goals for marketing activities which in turns can increase sales and market share (Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2014).
,
affects the purchase decisions of the customers to the same product (Huang et al., 2010).
Previous
showed that social media is a type of communication that acts as an important
in promoting
engagement (Hollebeek et al., 2014; Sashi, 2012b). They
showed that
significant correlates with
- based
(Godey et al., 2016; Sasmita and Norazah Mohd Suki, 2015; Jiao et al., 2018). In the
section, the authors clarify the
between
markers and
.