Background:           In 2019, the esport industry is expected to become a billion-dollar                                  industry. This new industry has presented rapid growth in recent times                                  which has led to new organizations and companies being formed to                                  capitalize on this opportunity. However, the creation of this new industry                                  has presented a new area of consumption where transfer of pre-existing                                  knowledge is not viable. This leads us to the question; how does one                                  interact with this newly formed industry and its followers?   Purpose:                  The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how esport organizations                                  interact with their brand communities and explore what they achieve                                  through such interactions.   Method:                  Empirical data has been gathered from esport organizations that has one                                  or several teams competing in their highest national league. The                                  gathering of data was done through semi-structured interviews. The data                                  was later analyzed using literature and conclusions were drawn from this.   Conclusion:             The evidence suggests that esport organizations puts more emphasis on                                  online platforms and interactions than offline interactions when                                  interacting with their brand communities. It was also found that esport                                  organizations emphasize a feeling of inclusion and positivity which could                                  act as an asset both in terms of expanding the reach of their brand                                  community and attracting new sponsorships.

Background: In recent years, the emergence of the internet and social networks have allowed consumers to interact and communicate quickly, this means that online social media-based brand communities are an important part of the market. However, does the engagement and activity on social media-based brand communities affect the consumers’ attitude and repetitive purchase?. That is what this research set out to find out. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explain how Social Media Brand Community affects consumers’ attitudes and repurchase behavior based on their activity. Methodology: For this research, a quantitative method was conducted. The research was explanatory, and a cross-sectional research design was used. Afterward, a questionnaire was developed and shared via internet platforms to collect the data needed for this study. Findings: It can be seen that both Activity and Engagement within Social Media brand communities have a statistically significant relationship with Consumers’ attitudes. However, it could also be seen that neither Activity or Engagement have a statistically significant relationship with Repetitive Purchase. Conclusion: Two of the null hypotheses were rejected and two failed to be rejected. To conclude, the results showed that activity and engagement had an effect on attitude but it did not have an effect on repetitive purchases.

Submitted by Vitor Moura Lima (vitormlima@gmail.com) on 2015-01-28T18:14:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 VitorLima_Dissertação_MEXFGV_low.pdf: 2263989 bytes, checksum: 4e0a234fad546a31a03c19cff7dafe73 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2015-02-04T19:26:09Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 VitorLima_Dissertação_MEXFGV_low.pdf: 2263989 bytes, checksum: 4e0a234fad546a31a03c19cff7dafe73 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2015-02-11T17:11:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 VitorLima_Dissertação_MEXFGV_low.pdf: 2263989 bytes, checksum: 4e0a234fad546a31a03c19cff7dafe73 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-11T17:11:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 VitorLima_Dissertação_MEXFGV_low.pdf: 2263989 bytes, checksum: 4e0a234fad546a31a03c19cff7dafe73 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-18 / The objective of the research was the investigation of the consumer engagement in a virtual brand community, which considered L'Oréal Paris Brasil Facebook Fan Page as a context of observation. On this purpose, by a netnography method, the interactions were collected from members of the website over three months and analyzed from the perspective of the conceptual model presented by Brodie et al. (2011b). During content analysis, which considered Bardin (2007) techniques, the dimensions, processes and sub-processes of the consumer engagement were identified, as proposed by the conceptual model. In addition, the results point to the validation of the model and reinforce the view that the mere participation or involvement doesn't indicates engagement, because it reflects a complex psychological state, context dependent and requires antecedents and consequences processes. Based on these findings, theoretical and practical implications, as well as suggestions for future studies, are discussed. / O estudo objetivou a investigação do fenômeno de engajamento do consumidor em uma comunidade virtual de marca, tendo a Fan Page da L'Oréal Paris Brasil como contexto de observação. Para isso, por meio de método netnográfico, foram coletadas as interações entre os membros da comunidade ao longo de três meses e analisadas sob a perspectiva do modelo conceitual apresentado por Brodie et al. (2011b). Durante a análise de conteúdo, considerando as técnicas propostas por Bardin (2007), foram identificadas as dimensões, os processos e sub-processos do engajamento do consumidor, conforme proposto pelo modelo conceitual. Além disso, os resultados encontrados apontam para a validação do modelo e reforçam a perspectiva de que a simples participação ou envolvimento não pressupõe engajamento, pois este reflete um estado psicológico complexo, dependente de contexto e que necessita de processos antecedentes e consequentes. Com base nos achados, são discutidas as implicações teóricas e práticas, assim como sugestão para futuros estudos sobre o tema.