The importance of social media is growing day by day because consumers increasingly use online platforms to facilitate social interaction. One new form of social media is microblog. The real time and ubiquitous communication that can deliver to a network of people is a great benefit for marketers to build online brand communities. The paper investigates the communication between the company and consumers based on BenQ’s case in Taiwan. The focuses lie in addressing the types of topic, techniques for marketing purposes and eWOM. These findings should assist marketers and academics in their understanding of brand communities on social media. / text

Aided by the development of information technology, the balance of power in the market place is rapidly shifting from marketers towards consumers and nowhere is this more obvious than in the online environment (Denegri-Knott, Zwick, & Schroeder, 2006; Moynagh & Worsley, 2002; Newcomer, 2000; Samli, 2001). From the inception and continuous development of the Internet, consumers are becoming more empowered. They can choose what they want to click on the Internet, they can shop and transact payments, watch and download video, chat with others, be it friends or even total strangers. Especially in online communities, like-minded consumers share and exchange information, ideas and opinions. One form of online community is the online brand community, which gathers specific brand lovers. As with any social unit, people form different roles in the community and exert different effects on each other. Their interaction online can greatly influence the brand and marketers. A comprehensive understanding of the operation of this special group form is essential to advancing marketing thought and practice (Kozinets, 1999). While online communities have strongly shifted the balance of power from marketers to consumers, the current marketing literature is sparse on power theory (Merlo, Whitwell, & Lukas, 2004). Some studies have been conducted from an economic point of view (Smith, 1987), however their application to marketing has been limited. Denegri-Knott (2006) explored power based on the struggle between consumers and marketers online and identified consumer power formats such as control over the relationship, information, aggregation and participation. Her study has built a foundation for future power studies in the online environment. This research project bridges the limited marketing literature on power theory with the growing recognition of online communities among marketing academics and practitioners. Specifically, this study extends and redefines consumer power by exploring the concept of power in online brand communities, in order to better understand power structure and distribution in this context. This research investigates the applicability of the factors of consumer power identified by Denegri-Knott (2006) to the online brand community. In addition, by acknowledging the model proposed by McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig (2002), which emphasized that community study should focus on the role of consumers and identifying multiple relationships among the community, this research further explores how member role changes will affect power relationships as well as consumer likings of the brand. As a further extension to the literature, this study also considers cultural differences and their effect on community member roles and power structure. Based on the study of Hofstede (1980), Australia and China were chosen as two distinct samples to represent differences in two cultural dimensions, namely individualism verses collectivism and high power distance verses low power distance. This contribution to the research also helps answer the research gap identified by Muñiz Jr & O'Guinn (2001), who pointed out the lack of cross cultural studies within the online brand community context. This research adopts a case study methodology to investigate the issues identified above. Case study is an appropriate research strategy to answer “how” and “why” questions of a contemporary phenomenon in real-life context (Yin, 2003). The online brand communities of “Haloforum.net” in Australia and “NGA.cn” in China were selected as two cases. In-depth interviews were used as the primary data collection method. As a result of the geographical dispersion and the preference of a certain number of participants, online synchronic interviews via MSN messenger were utilized along with the face-to-face interviews. As a supplementary approach, online observation was carried over two months, covering a two week period prior to the interviews and a six week period following the interviews. Triangulation techniques were used to strengthen the credibility and validity of the research findings (Yin, 2003). The findings of this research study suggest a new definition of power in an online brand community. This research also redefines the consumer power types and broadens the brand community model developed by McAlexander et al. (2002) in an online context by extending the various relationships between brand and members. This presents a more complete picture of how the perceived power relationships are structured in the online brand community. A new member role is discovered in the Australian online brand community in addition to the four member roles identified by Kozinets (1999), in contrast however, all four roles do not exist in the Chinese online brand community. The research proposes a model which links the defined power types and identified member roles. Furthermore, given the results of the cross-cultural comparison between Australia and China showed certain discrepancies, the research suggests that power studies in the online brand community should be country-specific. This research contributes to the body of knowledge on online consumer power, by applying it to the context of an online brand community, as well as considering factors such as cross cultural difference. Importantly, it provides insights for marketing practitioners on how to best leverage consumer power to serve brand objective in online brand communities. This, in turn, should lead to more cost effective and successful communication strategies. Finally, the study proposes future research directions. The research should be extended to communities of different sizes, to different extents of marketer control over the community, to the connection between online and offline activities within the brand community, and (given the cross-cultural findings) to different countries. In addition, a greater amount of research in this area is recommended to determine the generalizability of this study.

This study explores automobile online brand communities in the different cultural contexts between South Korea and the United States. The core assumption is that members of automobile online brand communities in different cultures have different motivation orientations to visit their online communities and have different community experiences. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions were utilized as embedded cultural circumstances in examining relationships between different motivation orientations and community experiences. Two steps of qualitative and quantitative research methods were adopted to determine the relationships among community members’ motivation orientations, community experiences, and satisfaction. The study found that Korean automobile online brand community (KAOBC) members have stronger social, business, and communication motivations than American automobile online brand community (AAOBC) members. These community members’ motivations also influenced their community experiences. Both social network motivations and communication motivations are crucial predictors for four community experiences: Community loyalty, trust, membership identity, and word of mouth (WOM). Community members who have a stronger social networking and/or communication motivation are more likely to have a higher level of community loyalty, trust, membership identity, and WOM. Finally, community experiences were the most important indicators of the satisfaction of online community members among nationality, demographic factors, and motivation orientations.

Online brand communityn (OBC) innebar ett kraftfullt, och potentiellt värdeskapande, verktyg för företag. Det har dock visat sig att företag hade svårt att bemöta sina OBC:er. Det resulterade i att företag gick miste om de potentiella värden OBC:n hade. För att öka kunskapen kring värdeskapande och bemötande av OBC:er har Minecraft och Netflix respektive OBC:er undersökts med hjälp av netnografi. Studien undersökte hur interaktioner och aktiviteter bidrog till värdeskapande i form av ökat varumärkeskapital och ny innovation. Den belyste även hur OBC:er skiljde sig åt beroende på om OBC:erna var fokuserade på områden kring innovation kontra varumärkeskapital. Studien fann sju interaktionsmönster att analysera. Interaktionsmönstren visade på skillnader mellan OBC:erna utifrån deras fokus och förutsättningar. Studien kunde även beskriva hur sex av de sju interaktionerna var värdeskapande för företaget. / Online brand community (OBC) is intended to be a powerful, and potentially valuable, tool for businesses. However, the outcome has shown that companies have had difficulties responding to their OBC:s. It has resulted in companies missing the potential values that OBC offered. In order to increase knowledge about value creation and reception of the OBC:s a netnography of Minecraft and Netflix, respectively OBC has been conducted. The study examined how interactions and activities contributed to the creation of value by an increased brand equity and new innovation. It also highlighted how the OBC:s differed depending on whether the OBC:s were focused on the topics of innovation versus brand equity. The study found seven interaction patterns to analyse. The interaction patterns showed differences between the OBC:s ,based on their focus and conditions. The study could also describe how six of the seven interactions created value for the company.

Studien syftar till att undersöka engagemang i ett online brand community (OBC) för att få en djupare förståelse för medlemmars engagemang i Sverige. Empirin samlades in genom en kvalitativ metod bestående av 13 semistrukturerade intervjuer med aktiva medlemmar. För att analysera empirin utgår studien från tre engagemangsdimensioner: affektivt, kognitivt och beteendemässigt engagemang. Resultatet visade hur aktiva medlemmars engagemang i OBC framkom genom en upplevd gemenskap, egennytta och vilja att tillgodose andra. Det framkom även att aktiva medlemmar har en betydande roll för interaktionen i OBC. Studien bidrar med en förståelse för medlemmars engagemang i ett svenskt OBC. / The study aims to investigate engagement in an online brand community (OBC) to gain a deeper understanding of members' engagement in Sweden. The empirical data was collected through a qualitative method consisting of 13 semi-structured interviews with active members. To analyze the empirical data, the study is based on three dimensions of engagement: affective, cognitive and behavioral engagement. The results showed how active members' engagement in OBC emerged through a perceived sense of community, self-interest and willingness to serve others. It also emerged that active members have a significant role in the interaction in OBC. The study contributes to an understanding of members' involvement in a Swedish OBC. This study is written in Swedish.

The importance of online brand communities has received increasing attention from both academia and industry. This paper reports a case study. It explains successful online strategies developed by two leading brands, Samsung mobile and Chungjungwon, in Korea. The current study has shown that the online brand community can act as a marketing tool to develop a group of loyal consumers around the brand. This study provides marketers with insights into and some useful guidelines for the creation and maintenance of successful marketer-generated online brand communities. The findings also suggest that there are differences in community development and management strategies, according to the characteristics of product category and community members, as well as in the purpose of the community operation. / text

There has been much enthusiasm over the power of online brand communities (OBCs). Ensuring that OBCs achieve their potential, however, is a challenge. Adopting the view that an OBC is a social entity at its core, this study examines consumers’ perceptions of OBCs and how consumers manage the continuous tension between social-related and brand-related aspects of OBCs through brand-related and non-brand-related social practices. The researcher took a symbolic interactionist approach and qualitative data were collected using ethnography and in-depth interviews from OBC participants in South Korea. The study was divided into two phases: the exploratory phase and the main study. In the first stage the researcher inspected OBCs and focused on understanding the social context by investigating four OBCs in the fashion and digital camera categories. Evidence of an OBC as a virtual third place (VTP) in the consumer’s mind was revealed. A typology was developed and social practices were revealed and defined. In the main study the researcher developed the framework of brand meaning negotiation and revealed how consumers symbolically interact and negotiate brand meaning through social practices. The tension between social-related and the brand-related aspects during this process was illustrated. The key contributions of this research are as follows. Firstly, the study reveals that an OBC has a strong VTP quality, whereby consumers hate to leave. Second, the study extends our understanding of an OBC by categorising consumers’ different perceptions of OBCs according to their attachment to the brand, the OBC and other participants. Third, the study reveals underlying social practices within OBCs that show the characteristics of a collectivistic culture. The study also fills the research gap by examining the brand meaning negotiation process and suggesting a framework that shows how underlying practices link brand and social-related aspects of an OBC together, which was formerly a “black box”. Lastly, it demonstrates that social bonds, regardless of their importance for making an OBC thrive, can be a double-edged sword and should be balanced carefully with brand-related practice.

While innovation has been a critical tool for the success of hospitality businesses, there has been little research concerning how hospitality service innovation is created. Focusing on knowledge development for service innovation, this dissertation examines hospitality open innovation processes by highlighting the critical role of customers as important external stakeholders for knowledge creation. More specifically, this research examines how hospitality brand community members engage in brand activities that co-create non-transactional knowledge value for open innovation. To achieve the research purpose, the dissertation consists of four independent studies. The design of the four studies followed a theory development process focusing on bibliometric analysis (Study 1), exploratory analysis (Study 2), empirical analysis (Study 3), and experimental analysis (Study 4). Study 1 conducted bibliometric co-citation analysis to examine the foundation and evolution of the service innovation research in both hospitality and tourism and service management literature. Study 2 examined how hospitality (hotel) customers engage in an online brand community and what types of value are co-created from their engagement behaviors. Study 3 empirically developed a multi-dimensional measure of customer engagement behaviors for co-creating non-transactional value. Lastly, Study 4 examined how hospitality online brand community members participate in open innovation behaviors as a result of customer empowerment and social recognition. Study 1 identified critical research opportunities for future hospitality and tourism research in terms of innovation creation, diffusion, and evaluation. Most importantly, open innovation via customer engagement was identified as a critical topic to understand hospitality innovation creation. In Study 2, customer engagement behaviors, motivations, and value co-creation were qualitatively analyzed in the context of an online hotel brand community. Using mixed-methods, including netnography analysis and qualitative written interviews, a conceptual framework of value co-creation via customer engagement was developed. Based on this framework, Study 3 developed a scale consisting of 15 items measuring customer engagement behaviors in terms of influential-experience value, C-to-B innovation value, relational value, and citizenship value. Lastly, Study 4 found a causal process that customer empowerment makes a positive impact on the intention of open innovation engagement and the creativity of ideas by mediating intrinsic motivation. / Doctor of Philosophy / While innovation has been a critical tool for the success of hospitality businesses, there has been little research concerning how hospitality service innovation is created. Focusing on knowledge development for service innovation, this dissertation examines hospitality open innovation processes by highlighting the critical role of customers as important external stakeholders for knowledge creation. More specifically, this research examines how hospitality brand community members engage in brand activities that co-create non-transactional knowledge value for open innovation. To achieve the research purpose, the dissertation consists of four independent studies. The design of the four studies followed a theory development process focusing on bibliometric critical literature review analysis (Study 1), exploratory analysis (Study 2), empirical analysis (Study 3), and experimental analysis (Study 4). Specifically, Study 1 critically analyzed service innovation academic studies published in the last decade in both hospitality and tourism and service management journals to get insights into future research directions. Study 2 analyzed how hospitality (hotel) customers engage in online brand community activities in terms of the benefits of the behaviors and the motivations for the engagement behaviors. Study 3 developed a practical tool to measure customer engagement behaviors. Lastly, Study 4 investigated how hospitality online brand community members participate in idea sharing behaviors in terms of customer empowerment and social recognition. Study 1 identified critical research opportunities for future hospitality and tourism research in terms of innovation creation, diffusion, and evaluation. Most importantly, open innovation via customer engagement was identified as a critical topic to understand hospitality innovation creation. Focusing on the open innovation, Study 2 analyzed hospitality customers' various engagement activities and contents created from the activities in an online hotel brand community. A conceptual framework of value co-creation via customer engagement behaviors was developed. Based on this framework, Study 3 developed a scale consisting of 15 items measuring customer engagement behaviors in terms of influential-experience value, C-to-B innovation value, relational value, and citizenship value. Lastly, Study 4 found that customers are likely to share their service ideas with hospitality practitioners when they enjoy doing so with the belief that their ideas can affect brand management decisions.

Studien undersöker olika dimensioner av det omdiskuterade begreppet kundengagemang i ett online brand community på Facebook, i förhållande till tidigare konsumtion och köpintention “offline”. Webbaserade enkäter användes som metod för att undersöka vilka dimensioner av kundengagemang som förekommer i det studerade online brand communityt på Livrustkammarens Facebooksida. Vidare användes en korrelationsanalys för att se om det fanns ett samband mellan de olika dimensionerna av kundengagemang i förhållande till tidigare konsumtion samt köpintention. Slutligen användes logistisk regressionsanalys för att se om någon av engagemangsdimensionerna kunde vara en predikator för tidigare konsumtion respektive köpintention. Resultatet av korrelationsanalysen visade på ett positivt, statistiskt signifikant samband mellan kognitivt engagemang gentemot varumärket i förhållande till tidigare konsumtion. Ett positivt och statistiskt signifikant samband förelåg också mellan alla engagemangsdimensioner i förhållande till köpintention. Regressionsanalyserna visade på endast ett statistiskt signifikant resultat, där kognitivt engagemang gentemot varumärket var en predikator för tidigare konsumtion. Troligtvis berodde avsaknaden av statistiskt signifikanta resultat i regressionsanalyserna på multikollinearitet (korrelation) mellan de oberoende variablerna. Denna korrelation gör det också svårt att undersöka alla tre dimensionerna av engagemang samtidigt i en kvantitativ studie. Framtida forskning kan därför använda sig av en kvalitativ metod, exempelvis netnografi, för att studera de antecedents som lämnats utanför studiens ramar. Resultatet visar också på vikten av att praktiker värdesätter det kognitiva engagemanget gentemot varumärket istället för endast det beteendemässiga, då detta var den enda predikatorn som framkom i förhållande till tidigare konsumtion. Resultatet tyder också på att engagemang i sociala medier har en betydelse för köpintention, då ett samband återfanns mellan alla former av engagemang i communityt ”online” och en intention att besöka museet ”offline”.

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