Social media brand communities and brand value co-creation: Evidences from Italy

This paper aims to demonstrate how consumers’ identification and engagement in social media brand communities are antecedents of brand loyalty intention and electronic-word of mouth (E-WOM). Because E-WOM may be considered as a proxy to measure consumers’ propensity to participate in brand value co-creation, the present study assessed which factors influence value co-creation in social media brand communities. A survey was administered online to members of Italian Nike+ runners’ communities. A multiple mediation analysis based on the use of SPSS PROCESS Macro has been selected as the main methodology of this research. The results showed that consumers’ identification in social media brand community influences consumers’ engagement which, in turn, influences brand loyalty intention. Moreover, this relation is moderated by consumers’ trust.