Consumers Engagement and Value Co-Creation in Social Media Brand Communities: Evidences from Italian Runners Communities

Objectives. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how consumers identification and engagement in social media brand communities are relevant antecedents of their brand loyalty intention and electronic-word of mouth (E-WOM). Since E-WOM may considered as a proxy to measure consumers propensity to participate in brand co-creation, the present study assessed which factors influence brand co-creation in social media brand communities. Methodology. A survey was administered online to members of Italian Nike+ communities. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was selected as the main methodology of analysis. Findings. The results show that consumers identification in the community influences consumers engagement, which in turn influences brand loyalty intention. Moreover, this relation is mediated by consumers trust. Additionally, brand loyalty intention was related with consumers’ propensity to diffuse online positive contents concerning the firm. Research limits. The research considered only three Italian brand communities initiated by a single brand. In order to achieve full generalizability future researches should try to replicate our results in a multi brand study. Practical implications. From this research, it has been empirically demonstrated how value perceived by consumers - which derives from their engagement in community activities - is related with brand loyalty intention and E-WOM - which may be considered respectively as forms of strategic capital and economic value for the firm resulting from co-creation. Originality of the study. This research is one of the first studies that empirically tests from a consumers perspective the relation between community engagement and co-created strategic capital and economic value for the brand.