Trust and commitment within a virtual brand community: The mediating role of brand relationship quality

• Published in: Information & management 2018-12, Vol.55 (8), p.939-955
• Main Authors: Akrout, Houcine, Nagy, Gàbor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brand fan pages; Brand relationship quality; Commitment; Economic benefits; Facebook; Hedonic benefits; Trust; Virtual brand community; Word-of-mouth
• ISSN: 0378-7206; 1872-7530
• DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2018.04.009

•Economic and hedonic benefits impact trust and commitment within the brand fan page.•Trust and commitment toward a brand fan page influence brand relationship quality.•Brand relationship quality mediates trust and commitment on fan page word-of-mouth.•Young and female fans having a strong relationship with the brand spread positive WOM.•Fans with a low participation in the fan page are more sensitive to hedonic benefits. This study seeks to clarify the antecedents and consequences of trust and commitment within the brand fan page context on Facebook, examining a sample of 210 respondents using structural equation modeling. The results highlight the positive effect of economic and hedonic benefits on trust and commitment within the brand fan page. Mediation analysis reveals that trust and commitment developed within the brand fan page will be transformed into positive “word of mouth” for the respective brand if fans have a strong relationship quality with the brand. Further, we found that young and female fans with a high level of engagement, having a strong relationship with the brand, spread positive WOM. Our findings broaden ways for developing relational governance in a firm-initiated virtual brand community by providing new levers and guidance for marketers to build strong customer relationships.