Online Brand Communities: Drivers and Barriers of Participation

Abstract

The online audience has become an important factor to be considered by different types of organizations. With the digitalization trend covering almost all spheres of human activities, there is a growing interest in the forces that define the digital audience's thoughts and movements. As many companies set their brand representatives online, it is important to understand better the phenomenon of online brand communities, explore the available knowledge considering the fast-changing nature of digital surroundings, and reveal drivers and barriers affecting active community participation. The objective of the thesis was to define the concept of the online brand community, summarize and collect the state-of-the-art knowledge on drivers and barriers to active participation through desk study and focus group interview methods and give practical recommendations for organizations to engage community members more effectively. The thesis starts with a thematic analysis of the desk study data set and proceeds with validation of the findings using the data obtained from an online focus group interview. The definitions and types of online brand communities are combined in the results. The main motivations to actively participate in online communities are divided into four groups: social motivations deriving from fundamental socio-psychological theories, brand-related factors of loyalty and commitment, interest in social activism and need for change, and other individualistic motives based on personal traits. The barriers to active participation were classified as negativity to a brand, environmental factors, and cultural differences. The topic of “lurkers” was additionally explored to better understand the behavior and reasons of the inactiveness of the lurking majority of online community participants. The analysis revealed several facilitation strategies that might be used to engage less active members in community participation. These strategies include developing technological and psychological environments, indicating the importance of the expected action, enhancing user-user interactions, covering privacy and safety concerns, and considering personal preferences of the target groups. The thesis approach is constructive research that studies existing theoretical concepts and case studies to get a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of online brand communities and the drivers and barriers of belonging and participating in them. The findings are validated through discussing them further in an online focus group interview. Summarized practical recommendations are given for organizations looking to engage community members in active participation.