Relationship Development Process in Brand Community: From the consumer-consumer-company triad perspective

This study investigates the determinants of consumer loyalty in the context of brand communities and proposed an empirical model of consumer loyalty toward virtual communities. We consider two perspectives of consumer loyalty development process: communication between consumer and company, and communication among consumers. In particular, we empirically examine the dynamic impacts of network-based characteristics on consumer loyalty by assessing the effects of connectivity, closeness, centrality, and density of the virtual network. This study provides a set of measurements characterizing network properties, which enables us to overcome the limited implication of network dynamics inherited in the conventional mathematical approach. Field practitioners should be able to use the resulting outputs by deploying proper design strategy. A structural equation modeling approach will be used to test the proposed model.