Are Facebook brand community members truly loyal to the brand?

Abstract

This study examines members of Facebook brand communities and tests the relationships between their commitment to the community and brand loyalty. A conceptual model on the linkages between brand community commitment, community promotion behavior and brand loyalty including attitudinal loyalty, repurchase intention and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) is developed and tested with two samples. Data from 3305 Facebook brand community members were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results show that brand loyalty is influenced by brand community commitment and community promotion behavior. Brand community commitment and community promotion behavior have the largest effect on positive WOM in both samples.