Despite their growing strategic importance, Virtual Brand Communities (VBCs) often fail to convert active consumer participation and interaction into meaningful emotional devotion and bond. Within these communities, members may appear very engaged while they are at fundamentally different levels of brand identification that might be strong or weak. This study examines how Virtual Brand Community Engagement (VBCE) influences Brand Love and Brand Recall through Brand Identification as a mediating variable, while investigating Brand Reward as a moderator that strengthens and act as supercharger of the engagement-identification relationship. Grounded in Social Identity Theory, which explains how individuals internalize group membership into their self-identity, the study argues that consumers who strongly identify with a brand community have more significant chances to develop deep emotional attachment and enhanced brand memory and influenced behaviors. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey was filled by 295 active brand community members across Pakistan, and data were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results reveal that VBCE strongly and significantly influences Brand Identification, which in turn strengthens Brand Love and Brand Recall ultimately. Brand Identification acts as a significant mediating mechanism in both pathways, establishing it as the core psychological conduit connecting engagement to outcomes which are brand love and recall as mentioned.
Tools: SPSS, AMOS, GOOGLE FORM, GOOGLE SCHOLAR, MS EXCEL
Department: Department of Business Studies
Poster
