Testing an extended model of consumer behavior in the context of social media-based brand communities.

Due to the benefits of brand community initiatives and the potential advantages of social media, many marketing managers made significant investments in building brand communities based on social media. A noticeable issue is how to measure the success of such investments in ways that are understandable and comparable to other marketing initiatives. To address this issue, it is essential to understand how social media-based brand communities influence customers' perceptions and behaviors. The purpose of this article is to develop and estimate an extended model of how different aspects of customers' relationships with such communities influence their perceptions and behaviors. The paper describes a way a customer's identification with a brand influences relationships with brand community elements, brand community markers, and ultimately brand relationship quality and brand loyalty. Then using a large sample of brand community members in social media and structural equation modeling, the authors estimate how social media-based brand communities influence brand relationship quality and brand loyalty. Managerial implications are discussed. Brand loyalty can be enhanced by brand communities established on social media.Brand community identification positively affects value creation practices through brand community markers.Brand community identification strengthen consumer's relationship with brand community elements.Consumer relationship quality with brand is positively influenced by the elements of brand community.Brand relationship quality positively influences brand loyalty.