A Study on Consumer Engagement in Online Brand Communities

The research analyzes consumer engagement behaviour in online brand communities by investigating factors which affect participation and interactions. A survey involving 138 participants from varied demographics helped researchers determine major factors that drive engagement actions. Principal Component Analysis revealed seven distinct components, which explained over 90% of the study's variance. Brand trust and reliability, together with value and utility, function as primary contributors alongside user experience, brand satisfaction and loyalty, content quality, community connectivity, and active participation in explaining over 90% of brand community interaction. The results show that brand trust and community structure density, together with community activity volumes, create direct paths to consumer engagement, although perceived value, information quality, and community experience affect engagement indirectly. The presented study demonstrates that online brand communities exist on multiple dimensions while strategic management focusing on architecture and trust builds direct pathways to boost consumer engagement. This work expands digital consumer research by presenting an all-encompassing framework that allows the optimization of brand-sponsored online community engagement among different demographic groups.