This paper explains how companies can manage their brand communities effectively. The findings reported in this paper are based on a four-year long project involving the study of company managed and enthusiast-run communities. During that time, 200 brand community managers of company-managed and...

THE LEADING QUESTION: • How can companies manage their brand communities effectively? FINDINGS: • Setting up and managing a brand community of customers is a potentially powerful marketing program for companies in the current harsh economic climate. • Many company-run brand communities...

We investigate two key group-level determinants of virtual community participation - group norms and social identity - and consider their motivational antecedents and mediators. We also introduce a marketing-relevant typology to conceptualize virtual communities, based on the distinction between...

We report the results of a longitudinal field study, conducted in cooperation with two restaurants, to examine the degree to which participating on a Facebook fan page affects customer behaviors. We assessed customers’ baseline levels of visit frequency and spending. The restaurants then set...