Virtual brand community participation and the impact on brand loyalty: A conceptual model

Abstract

This paper takes the increasingly popular virtual brand community as the research object, and proposes a conceptual framework of virtual brand community participation and its impact on brand loyalty. This paper thinks that there are three antecedents (brand information sharing, brand experience, brand community identification) of consumers' participation in virtual brand community, and there are two mediators (online trust, network interpersonal interaction) in the process of participation. Moreover, after participation in virtual brand community, customers will further produce behavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty to brand.