How Do We Engage Customers in Official Activity in the Virtual Brand Community? The Effects of Enterprise-Generated Contents on Customer Engagement Behaviors

The rapid development of information and communication technologies has positioned virtual brand communities as key platforms for facilitating direct interactions between companies and customers. As part of this trend, enterprises are increasingly utilizing enterprise-generated content (EGC) to drive customer engagement within these communities. However, numerous enterprises struggle to achieve the desired levels of online interaction. This study seeks to address this challenge by systematically measuring the characteristics of EGC in brand communities and examining their effects on varying forms of customer engagement behaviors (CEBs). We categorize EGC characteristics into five dimensions and classify CEBs into three different levels based on engagement intensity. Using a large dataset of 21,850 EGC posts and corresponding customer behavior data, we employ text analysis and machine learning techniques to conduct a robust empirical analysis, revealing the complex relationships between EGC characteristics and CEBs. The findings reveal that media richness, information specialty, and information incentive of EGC positively influence higher-intensity CEBs, whereas more obvious information persuasiveness and information marketing fall short of driving active community engagement. This research not only uncovers the nuanced relationships between EGC characteristics and engagement behaviors but also contributes to the empirical results of EGC studies by applying large-sample text analysis methods. Furthermore, it provides valuable insights for enterprises aiming to optimize their content strategies to influence customer behaviors and achieve targeted marketing goals within virtual brand communities.