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Consumers’ Motivations to Participate in Virtual Brand Communities

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Online Brand Communities

Part of the book series: Progress in IS ((PROIS))

Abstract

The reasons that bring people to relate to other similar individuals, brands or organizations through communities are highly varied, depending on the type of person, what they hope to accomplish and the type of brand. In general, motives like seeking information, communication, establishing relationships and constructing an identity show up in most studies, but other more hedonistic characteristics, like leisure or reputation also lead to participation. When trying to identify and explain people’s motives for participation, various theories emerge, mainly from the fields of psychology and sociology, which offer their own view on this research question.

In this chapter, we deal with the basic motivations that bring users to join virtual communities, especially virtual brand communities, as well as what intensifies their relationship, engagement and participation once they have joined. To go about this, we will first thoroughly explicate the different theories mentioned. Next, we summarize the main reasons highlighted by such theories for both online communities in general, and more specifically, for online brand communities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Business Administration, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Francisco J. Martínez-López

  2. Marketing Group, Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain

    Francisco J. Martínez-López

  3. Dept. Economics & Business Administration, University of Malaga, Malaga, Spain

    Rafael Anaya-Sánchez, Rocio Aguilar-Illescas & Sebastián Molinillo

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  1. Francisco J. Martínez-López
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  4. Sebastián Molinillo
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Martínez-López, F.J., Anaya-Sánchez, R., Aguilar-Illescas, R., Molinillo, S. (2016). Consumers’ Motivations to Participate in Virtual Brand Communities. In: Online Brand Communities. Progress in IS. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24826-4_9

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