Influences of Place Attachment and Social Media Affordances on Online Brand Community Continuance

Abstract

Online brand communities not only enhance customer loyalty and experience but also help in building a closer relationship among brands, suppliers, and other customers, contributing to a healthy and positive identification. Moreover, the emergence and rapid development of social media have brought customers to become an indispensable part of brand activities through conversation and co-creation with the brand. Factors that affect customers’ intentions for continual participation in online brand communities thus present a research opportunity to be explored as well as a research gap to be filled. Drawing on the place attachment theory and social media affordances perspectives, which serve as contextual and instrumental drivers, respectively, this research investigates the influence of place attachment and social media affordances on online brand community continuance. In addition, the mediating role of experience and brand engagement will be addressed in order to build a more holistic model on the causal relationships. The ultimate goal is to help us build a clearer picture of customers’ participation behavior in online brand communities.