Consumer Engagement in online brand community

A Thesis submitted in the partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of
Science in Management and Marketing
Presented by
Batool Safi Alhajji
Under the supervision of
Prof. Anthony McDonnell
Consumer Engagement in Online Brand Community
An Exploratory Study of Facebook Brand Page
School of Business and Law
August 2017

ii
ABSTRACT
More recently consumer engagement has been postulated, more comprehensively, to
represents the interactive consumer-brand relationship, relative to other relational concepts
such as “involvement” and “participation”. This notion becomes even more crucial with the
emergence of online band communities, where a number of people with similar interests
gather in a virtual context to communicate. However, despite the widespread interest
pertaining the “engagement” within the brand communities context, the conceptual meaning
underlying this emerging construct remain underexplored in the marketing literature to date.
Drawing on a literature review, this study aimed to explore the nature and scope of consumer
engagement in an online brand community, in relation to Facebook brand page. The findings
presented in this thesis propose that consumer engagement is dynamic and dual-focused
phenomenon. Further, it indicates the complex multi-dimensional nature, including cognitive,
emotional and behavioural dimensions, of consumer engagement, which may occur at
different levels of intensity. One of the main findings of this study indicates that consumer
engagement on Facebook brand page is a multi-faceted concept, which could be either
positive or negative. These findings contribute to the body of knowledge on consumer
engagement in online brand community.
Key Words: Consumer engagement, online brand communities, social media, multi-
dimensional construct, Facebook brand page, positive engagement, negative engagement.

iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Prof.
Anthony McDonnell, for his continuous support, patience and guidance. His guidance helped
me at all times during the researching and writing of this thesis. He provided me with the
tools that I needed to choose the right direction and successfully complete my dissertation. I
wish to extend a special thanks to the course director Michael Murphy and all lecturers in the
school of business for their kind support. I would also like to thank my family – my parents
and my husband – for their wise counsel and sympathetic ears. Finally, I would like to thank
my friends for their precious support.

iv
TABLE OF CONTENT
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................iii
LIST OF TABLES ..........................................................................................................v
LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................vi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION............................................................................. 1
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................. 5
2.1. Engagement................................................................................................................5
2.2. Consumer engagement: Theoretical foundations ........................................................7
2.3. Consumer engagement: the nature and dimensionality ..............................................9
2.4. Consumer engagement in online brand communities................................................16
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY......................................................................19
2.1. Research philosophy .................................................................................................19
2.2. Secondary research...................................................................................................20
2.2.1. Planning the review .................................................................................................... 20
2.2.2. Locating and selecting relevant studies ...................................................................... 21
2.2.3. Critically appraising the relevant studies.................................................................... 22
2.2.4. Analysing and synthesising the literature................................................................... 25
2.3. Primary Research.....................................................................................................25
2.3.1. Research strategy........................................................................................................ 25
2.3.2. Research method......................................................................................................... 26
2.3.3. Entrée and research setting......................................................................................... 26
2.3.4. Data collection and analysis ....................................................................................... 28
2.3.5. Ethics .......................................................................................................................... 30
CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS.....................................................................................31
4.1. The object of engagement .........................................................................................31
4.2. The level of consumer engagement on Facebook brand pages...................................35
4.2.1. Consuming.................................................................................................................. 36
4.2.2. Contributing................................................................................................................ 39
4.2.3. Creating ...................................................................................................................... 40
4.3. The dimensionality of consumer engagement............................................................41
4.3.1. The cognitive dimension ............................................................................................ 41
4.3.2. The emotional dimension ........................................................................................... 43
4.3.3. The behavioural dimension ........................................................................................ 46
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION..................................................................................51
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION..................................................................................57
Limitations and Future researches .......................................................................................58
BIBLIOGRAPHY .........................................................................................................60
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................68

v
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Definitions of engagement in the social science and management disciplines ..........6
Table 2: Overview of the concept of engagement in the marketing literature ........................11
Table 3: Definitions of the dimensions and sub-dimensions of consumer engagement .........15
Table 4: Database search results .............................................................................................22
Table 5: Summary table of articles retrieved from databases and academic journals ............23
Table 6: Facebook posts created by PlayStation between November 2016 and May 2017 ...29
Table 7: The collected posts of Starbucks between March 2016 and June 2017....................32
Table 8: Consumer-to-consumer interactions regarding the LGBTQ flag post (Starbucks) ..33

vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: The number and percentage of Starbucks fans by country (Socialbakers, 2017) ...28
Figure 2: The number and percentage of PlayStation fans by country (Socialbakers, 2017). 28
Figure 3: The level of consumer engagement on a Facebook brand page..............................35
Figure 4: The average number of reactions, shares, comments and views, by content type ..37
Figure 5:The average number of reactions, shares, comments and views, by content type ...38

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Consumer engagement has been recognised as one of the essential components for
establishing and sustaining competitive advantage, as well as driving sales growth and
profitability (Neff, 2007; Voyles, 2007). With its roots in relationship marketing, consumer
engagement seems to be a fertile ground for improving and sustaining strong and lasting
consumer-brand relationships (Fournier,1998), by extending the scope of such relationships
beyond a single transaction. As a result of the valuable insights offered by studies of the
engagement concept in the management and business practice literature, the term
“engagement” has been increasingly used in the broader academic marketing literature
(Brodie et al, 2011).It is typically examined as “customer engagement” (Bowden, 2009;
Patterson, Yu and De Ruyter, 2006), focusing on context-specific engagement with a
particular engagement object, such as brands (Gambetti and Graffigna, 2010; Hollebeek et
al., 2014), products or organisations (Patterson et al., 2006; Vivek et al., 2014). In addition to
the significant level of academic interest in consumer engagement, it is becoming the
predominant objective of many marketing professionals (Greenberg, 2008). It is suggested
that increasing consumer engagement are expected to be conducive to generate enhanced
organizational performance in the sense that engaged consumer play vital role in viral
marketing and product development process (Bijmolt et al. 2010). Therefore, marketing
professionals are making efforts to establish and improve consumer engagement and involve
them in brand co-creation (ibid).
In this regard, many practitioner tend to use and promote brand communities, which have
developed in parallel with the rise of the use of the term “engage” (Muniz and O’Guinn,
2001). Its added value lies in supporting the specific interactive experiences of consumers’
relationships (McAlexander, Schouten and Koenig, 2002), considering the fact that social
interactions between members of the community significantly influence consumers’
relationships with, and attitudes towards, the brand (McAlexander et al., 2002). With the
emergence and rise of the communication technologies, as consumers are increasingly
participating in virtual communication tools, including discussion forums, personal websites,
social media websites and blogs, to interact with other people, the internet have served as
platforms for interaction with and among consumers, and the formation of brand

Introduction
2
communities. Accordingly, De Valck et al. (2009), p. 185 define “virtual brand community”
as “a specialized non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social
relationships among admirers of a brand”. In such virtual environments, users often gather
together in a brand-related community, where consumers share their interest in a brand,
exchange information and knowledge, or where they simply express their feelings about this
specific brand (Woisetschläger, Hartleb and Blut, 2008). These virtual communities have
changed the world of marketing and how marketing professionals communicate with, and
thus market to, consumers. Kate Leggett, a customer relationship management expert in
Forrester Research, states that “Customers now sit in the driver’s seat. They control the
conversation”. She adds, “Companies have to be obsessed with delivering customer
experiences in line with their expectations” (Brownell, 2016).
Establishing brand communities in general, and online brand communities in particular,
allows a company to manage consumer resistance to traditional marketing communication
tools. Hence, online brand communities have acquired considerable importance within online
brands’ strategies of communication and relationships with their consumers. This has led to
interest from marketing professionals and academics in understanding the mechanism of
brand communities which contributes to their success (Casaló et al., 2013; Lin, Hsiu-Fen,
2006). Despite the significant interest, there is a paucity of research regarding the nascent
academic literature of consumer engagement in online brand communities, particularly in
relation to social media (e.g. Dessart et al., 2015; Simon et al., 2016). Most of the previous
research has focused primarily on the consequences of consumer engagement within the
context of online brand communities, including brand loyalty, trust/commitment and
empowerment (i.e. Bowden, 2009; Chan and Li, 2010; Cova et al., 2007; Fuller et al., 2009;
Gruen et al., 2006; Schau et al., 2009; Hollebeek, 2011, Brodie et al., 2011). Other studies
have considered strategies that companies can use to foster the level of engagement, which,
in turn, can serve to build strong brand communities (i.e.De Vries et al., 2012; Dholakia and
Durham, 2010).
Furthermore, despite the increase in the conceptual (Van Doorn et al., 2010) and empirical
(Brodie et al., 2013) examinations of consumer engagement, the understanding of this
significant construct remains incomplete. In this respect, the current literature shows
inconsistency in the number and the nature of the suggested dimensions of consumer

Introduction
3
engagement, with some authors considering the concept to be a uni-dimensional construct
(one dimension is recognised to be the dominant and the most significant one, whether it is
emotional, cognitive or behavioural) (Van Doorn et al., 2010). Meanwhile, other authors
consider it to be a multi-dimensional construct that consists of two or three dimensions
(Patterson et al., 2006; Vivek et al., 2012; Bowden, 2009; Hollebeek, 2011). Additionally,
previous research on consumer engagement has had a limited focus. For instance, conceptual
research thus far has overlooked the multiple foci of consumer engagement (Dessart et al.,
2016). Although many studies have suggested that consumers develop relationships and
engage with another engagement object other than brands simultaneously – for example,
communities (Brodie et al., 2011; Brodie et al, 2013; Dessart et al., 2015; Vivek et al., 2012)
– there seems to be a relative dearth of research on the different foci regarding engagement
(Dessert et al., 2016). Similarly, measurement studies tend to measure consumer engagement,
focusing on one object at a time, whether a brand, brand-related content or firms (Bowden,
2009; van Doorn et al., 2010), or online brand communities (Gummerus et al., 2012;
Hollebeek et al., 2014; Vivek et al., 2014; Vivek et al., 2012 ). Therefore, the relevance of
other engagement objects has become less clear (Dessart et al., 2016).
Therefore, the author concludes that the nature and the dimension of consumer engagement
within the context of online brand communities, particularly in social media, remains
nebulous to-date. Thus, considering the extreme importance of consumer engagement for the
future of brands and the development of relationships between consumers and brands, online
brand communities and consumer engagement represent significant areas of research.
Examining the literature on consumer engagement in online brand communities, this paper
will explore consumer engagement and participation in these communities (i.e. the
dimensionality of consumers’ engagement with the brand and the community).
The current study aims to empirically examine the nature and scope of consumers’
engagement in online brand communities. Given that consumer engagement is a multi-
dimensional construct (Brodie et al., 2011; Brodie et al., 2013; Hollebeek et al., 2014), this
study will examine dimensions of online consumer engagement, specifically incorporating
the following three dimensions: 1) cognitive, 2) affective and 3) behavioural consumer
engagement. More specifically, it will explore the presence of consumers’ cognitive,
emotional and behavioural engagement in their relationship with both brands and other

Introduction
4
members of online brand communities through participating in Facebook brand pages.
Following on from these objectives, the study addresses the following two research
questions:
RQ1: To what extent are consumers engaged with brands on Facebook brand pages?
RQ2: To what extent are consumers engaged with other members on Facebook brand
pages?
Following this introduction, the paper begins by examining the concept of consumer
engagement in online brand communities by considering the concept as described within the
marketing, social science and management literature. In the next chapter, the methods used to
collect and analyse the data are presented. This is followed by details of the present study’s
findings, a discussion of the results and observations regarding the implications for both
theory and practice. Finally, the paper provides a conclusion to the research, pointing out
some limitations to this study and suggestions for future research.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Engagement
The concept of engagement has been examined in different scientific disciplines, including
the social sciences (i.e. organisational behaviour, psychology and sociology), education and
political sciences. In educational psychology, for instance, “student engagement” has been
found to be pivotal in optimising the student experience and enhancing learning outcomes
(Skinner and Belmont, 1993; cited in Hollebeek, 2011) and their performance (Bryson and
Hand, 2007; cited in Hollebeek, 2011). Moreover, in the organisational behaviour and
management literature, the terms “employee engagement” (Catteeuw, Flynn and
Vonderhorst, 2007) have been used to examine the impact of such engagement on
productivity and profitability (Greenwood and Michelle, 2007, cited in Brodie et al., 2013).
As a result, the variety of engagement forms (i.e. civic engagement, student engagement,
social engagement, the engagement of nation states) has highlighted the diversity in the ways
that engagement has been defined in such different disciplines. To illustrate this diversity, a
selection of definitions is provided in Table 1.
The definitions contained in Table 1 portray engagement as a motivational construct
characterised by two-way interactions between the focal engagement subject (i.e. civic,
students, employees and states or nations) and objects (i.e. schools, other individuals,
organisations or specific political institutions) where the specific engagement object may
range from a particular person (individuals) to collective objects (institutions and
organisations) (Brodie et al, 2011). It also provides an understanding of the engagement
process within specific engagement contexts, representing relevant engagement levels, states
and dimensionality. To illustrate, several investigations within the social science and
management disciplines have identified the occurrence of different engagement intensities
within iterative engagement processes, which, in turn, are observed to generate distinct
behavioural outcomes (Salanova et al., 2005; Schaufeli et al., 2002).

Literature review
6
Table 1: Definitions of engagement in the social science and management disciplines
Moreover, there is a lack of consensus, as regards the dimensionality of engagement,
observed in the management and social science literature, with some studies describing
engagement as a uni-dimensional construct, focusing on either the emotional, cognitive or
behavioural dimension (e.g. Achterberg et al., 2003; Resnick, 2001). Meanwhile, other
studies regard engagement as a multi-dimensional construct (e.g. Franket al., 2004;
Handelsman et al., 2005; Lutz at al., 2006, cited in Hollebeek, 2011).
Under both perspectives, further debate occurs in respect to the proposed dimension of
certain engagement forms. For instance, while Guthrie and Cox (2001; cited in Hollebeek,
2011), adopting the uni-dimensional perspective, focused on the cognitive dimension,
Catteeuw et al. (2007) and Pomerantz (2006; cited in Hollebeek, 2011) examined the
Disciplines Construct Authors Definitions
social
psychology
Civic engagement Achterberg et al.
(2003)
“social engagement” as “a sense of
initiative, involvement and adequate
response to social stimuli,
participating in social activities and
interacting with others”
educational
psychology
Student engagement London, Downey
and Mace (2007)
“students’ academic investment,
motivation and commitment to their
institution, their perceived
psychological connection, comfort and
sense of belonging towards their
institution”
organisational
behaviour
Employee engagement Saks (2006) “the amount of cognitive, emotional
and physical resources an individual is
prepared to devote in the performance
of one’s work roles”
Political
science
State engagement Resnick (2001) Iterative process aiming to influence
the political behaviour of a target state
through sustained contact with that
state across multiple areas (e.g.
diplomatic, economic), focused on
generating a relationship of increasing
interdependence

Literature review
7
emotional and behavioural aspects, respectively. Along similar lines, a combination of the
cognitive, emotional and/or behavioural aspects has been examined within the multi-
dimensional perspective. To illustrate, while some authors, including Marks and Printy
(2003), describe engagement as a two-dimensional cognitive/emotional phenomenon, others,
such as Bejerholm and Eklund (2007), adopt a cognitive/behavioural conceptualisation of
engagement. By contrast, Norris et al. (2003; cited in Hollebeek, 2011) advocate an
emotional/behavioural view. Moreover, the three-dimensional engagement, incorporation,
emotional, cognitive and behavioural dimension, conceptualisation is predominant in the
social and management literature (i.e. Bakker et al., 2007; Bakker, et al., 2008; Handelsman
et al., 2005; Ili´c, 2008; Jennings and Stoker, 2004; Klem and Connell, 2004; Schaufeli and
Mart´ınez et al. 2002; and Schaufeli, Salanova et al. 2002; cited in Hollebeek, 2011). Based
on this theoretical underpinning, a conceptualisation for the emerging consumer engagement
construct has been proposed, and its conceptual relationships with traditional marketing
constructs, such as involvement and participation, have been examined in the literature
regarding marketing relationships and services.
2.2.Consumer engagement: Theoretical foundations
The terms ‘‘consumer engagement’’ and ‘‘customer engagement’’ have emerged in the
academic marketing and service literature only recently. In contrast to the management,
social sciences and business practice literature, where the engagement concept received a
considerable degree of attention, with a large amount of definitions provided, there have been
only few attempts to systematically conceptualise the relevant concepts in the marketing
literature to date, and empirical work has only recently begun to appear.
The conceptual roots of consumer engagement are most often situated in the service
management approach (Grönroos, 2010) and the relationship marketing paradigm (Sheth and
Partiyavar, cited in Javornik, Mandelli, 2013). In the relationship marketing theory, which
Ashley et al. (2011) suggest to be the broader theory through which to study relevant
constructs, many scholars highlight the significance of customer orientation approaches
(Grönroos, 2010) and the customers’ active role in the value co-creation process. To
illustrate, Vargo (2009), from a service-dominant (S-D) logic perspective, refers to this
concept as “transcending conceptualisation of relationships” which transcend the traditional
understanding of relationship marketing, or the so-called goods-dominant (G-D) perspective.

Literature review
8
The relational nature of this broader view does not confine relationship marketing to consider
a product (whether good or service) as the end of value creation. Rather, it emphasises the
notion that relationship marketing is “inherently customer oriented and relational”, taking
place in dynamic, complex and co-creative environments (Vergo, 2009, p. 375).
This paradigm shift from a firm-centric to a customer-centric approach in the relationship
marketing theory has attracted greater attention towards consumer relations and their
interactions with brands. In this regard, the phenomenon of consumer engagement is
becoming a central subject of various conceptual and empirical works that attempt either to
conceptualise how consumers contribute to brand value co-creation or examine the
construct’s emotional, cognitive and behavioural manifestations. Specifically, drawing on the
research of Morgan and Hunt (1949; cited in Vivek et al., 2012), Vargo and Lusch (2008),
and Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004), Vivek et al. (2012) explain the expanded domain of
relationship marketing, emphasising that consumer engagement is a significant component of
relationship marketing. In other words, they portray consumer engagement as a central
construct within the marketing system which is based on certain interactive consumer
experiences which are co-created with other individuals (Vivek et al., 2012).
Furthermore, a significant review of the notion of “engagement” and consumer engagement
in the marketing literature has been conducted, including the work of authors such as Brodie
et al. (2011), Vivek et al. (2012), Hollebeek (2011), Gambetti and Graffigna (2010), and
Javornik & Mandelli (2013). These studies have emphasised the relevance of the construct
for social sciences, as it has a solid basis in other fields, such as organisational behaviour,
education, psychology, sociology, management and political science (Vivek et al., 2012;
Brodie et al., 2011). Moreover, in this emerging literature, “engagement” has been perceived
as a promising construct proposed to provide enhanced consumer behaviour outcomes,
including brand loyalty, trust and commitment (Avnet and Higgins, 2006; Pham and Avnet,
2009; Schau et al., 2009; Brodie et al., 2011).

Literature review
9
2.3.Consumer engagement: the nature and dimensionality
The applications of the engagement construct in marketing seem to follow the approach of
social science, as addressed previously in this paper. Within this context, engagement has
been applied predominantly in relation to consumer/customer as the focal engagement subject
(Barnatt, 2001; Bowden, 2009; Patterson et al., 2006). Furthermore, the object of engagement
has been primarily cited in the literature as brands (Sprott et al., 2009), products and/or
organisations (Patterson et al., 2006).
A review of the relevant literature reflects the nascent developmental state of engagement
research in marketing to date. Specifically, the relative lack of exploration of engagement in
marketing has led to a lack of consensus regarding the conceptual domain of engagement in
many respects; i.e. in relation to its forms, its definitions, its dimensionality and, therefore, its
operationalisation. Firstly, it identifies different engagement-based concepts, including
“consumer/customer engagement” (Brodie et al., 2011; van Doorn et al., 2010), “brand
engagement” (Sprott et al., 2009), “consumer brand engagement” (Hollebeek, 2011), “brand
engagement” (Franzak Makarem and Jae, 2014), “community engagement” (Algesheimer,
Dholakia and Hermann 2005) and “online brand engagement” (Mollen and Wilson, 2010).
Secondly, from an examination of the studies regarding consumer engagement in the
marketing literature published between 2005 and 2012, it is evident that there is
inconsistency in its treatment of the definition of consumer engagement, with some authors
emphasising a psychological process and others supporting a behavioural focus.
For instance, Bowden (2009) views consumer engagement as a psychological process
incorporating cognitive and emotional aspects. In particular, he investigated the engagement
of new consumers, as opposed to existing ones. Conversely, Mollen and Wilson (2010, p.
923) characterise the concept as “sustained cognitive processing”, viewing the engagement
context as a vast information store, wherein the individual’s perception of “instrumental
value” and “experiential value” is an inalienable part of the engagement process. They also
provide a distinction between the engagement concept and involvement, in the sense that a
consumer's brand engagement goes beyond mere involvement, as it incorporates an
interactive relationship with the engagement object (Mollen and Wilson, 2010, p. 923). It
should be noted that this perspective is consistent with the expanded domain of relationship
marketing, which stresses the notions of interactivity and customer experience (Vivek et al.,

Literature review
10
2012). Moreover, drawing on a range of social science and management research, Hollebeek
(2011) emphasises the motivational and context-dependent nature of the relevant concept.
Within this context, engagement, according to Hollebook (2011), is significantly oriented
towards engagement situations, and it can be affected by consumers’ decisions regarding
particular engagement objects, such as brands, products or organisations.
Brodie et al. (2011) discuss a general definition of consumer/customer engagement which is
applicable to a range of engagement contexts rather than being restricted to a specific one.
They developed all-encompassing conceptualisations of consumer engagement within the
larger context of value co-creation and the customer’s active role in it. Brodie et al. (2011)
built their broader definition on previous conceptualisations developed by Patterson et al.,
(2006), Hollebeek (2011), and Mollen and Wilson (2010), yet they followed the
organisational behaviour approach (Macey and Schneider (2008), cited in Brodie et al., 2011)
by describing the dimensions of consumer engagement generically, rather than in a context-
specific way. Specifically, in contrast to other marketing scholars’ definitions which provide
specific expressions of focal engagement dimensions (i.e. Mollen’s and Wilson’s (2010)
expression “sustained cognitive process”) Brodie et al.’s (2011) definition is too broad to
provide any context-specific expression of relevant constructs. It also goes beyond focusing
fundamentally on one aspect of the customer engagement process (i.e. behavioural
manifestations such as that of Van Doorn et al., 2009) or the experiential aspect of specific
media context such as advertising, including the work of Calder et al. (2009) and Pagani et
al., (2011).
Overall, despite the ongoing debate regarding the definition of consumer engagement having
an interactive experience with focal objects (brands, communities, products, etc.), it is the
most common component in most definitions. The studies of consumer engagement usually
use the terms “engage” and “engagement” in discussions regarding co-creation and the
development of interaction (Table 2).

Table 2: Overview of the concept of engagement in the marketing literature
Authors construct Definitions dimensionality
Algesheimer et
al. (2005)
Brand
community
engagement
The positive influence of identifying with the
brand community through the consumer’s intrinsic
motivation to interact/cooperate with community
members.
Multi-
dimensional
Patterson et al.
(2006)
Customer
engagement
The level of a customer's physical, cognitive and
emotional presence in his/her relationship with a
service organisation.
Multi-
dimensional
Bowden (2009) Customer
engagement
A psychological process that models the
underlying mechanisms by which customer loyalty
forms for new customers of a service brand, as
well as the mechanisms by which loyalty may be
maintained for repeat purchase customers of a
service brand.
Multi-
dimensional
Mollen and
Wilson (2010)
Online brand
engagement
The customer’s cognitive and affective
commitment to an active relationship with the
brand as personified by the website or other
computer-mediated entities designed to
communicate brand value.
Multi-
dimensional
Van Doorn et
al. (2010)
Customer
engagement
behaviour
Customers’ behavioural manifestations toward a
brand or firm, beyond a purchase, resulting from
motivational drivers such as word-of mouth
activity, recommendations, helping other
customers, blogging and writing reviews.
Uni-dimensional
Hollebeek
(2011)
Customer
brand
engagement
The level of a customer’s motivational, brand-
related and context-dependent state of mind,
characterised by specific levels of cognitive,
emotional and behavioural activity in brand
interactions.
Multi-
dimensional
Brodie et al
(2011)
Customer
Engagement
Customer engagement (CE) is a psychological
state that occurs by virtue of interactive, co-
creative customer experiences with a focal
agent/object (e.g. a brand) in focal service
relationships.
Multi-
dimensional
Vivek et al.
(2012)
Consumer
engagement
The intensity of an individual's participation and
connection with the organisation's offerings and
activities, initiated by either the customer or the
organisation.
Multi-
dimensional

Literature review
12
Thirdly, it is apparent that the debate regarding the appropriate dimensionality of engagement
addressed in other disciplines (i.e. social sciences and management) is also evident in the
marketing literature. In this respect, different approaches are advanced, and both uni-
dimensional and multi-dimensional perspectives are provided. It is worth mentioning that, in
the case of both perspectives, there is little agreement on what and how many dimensions
should be included in relevant constructs. Javornik and Mandelli (2013) performed a
thorough analysis of the research perspectives concerning consumer engagement, identifying
four main research perspectives: behavioural, psychological, social and multi-dimensional.
Accordingly, the number of dimensions used for the measurement of consumer engagement
is determined by the perspective of consumer engagement (i.e. considering whether
engagement is deemed a uni-dimensional or multi-dimensional concept) (Javornik and
Mandelli, 2013). Moreover, the definition of these dimensions varies across different
engagement contexts, depending on the engagement object (brand, brand communities, social
media websites and advertisements) (ibid).
In the case of the first view (the uni-dimensional perspective), one dimension is considered as
the dominant one, most often the behavioural dimension (i.e. Sprott et al., 2009; van Doorn et
al., 2010; Verhoef et al., 2010). It should be noted that different researchers have identified
different dimensions. For instance, based on Van Doorn et al. (2010), as regards
conceptualisations of consumer engagement, which consider the concept of engagement as
involving merely behavioural manifestations, many marketing scholars have examined and
measured consumers’ consumption-related activities, including repeat purchases, word-of-
mouth (e.g. Brown et al.,2007) recommendations, online activities (Kim, 2013), community
participation (e.g. Lee et al., 2011) and similar behavioural dimensions (e.g. Sashi, 2012;
Gummerus et al., 2012).
Conversely, the multi-dimensional perspective addressed consumer engagement from
different angles, predominantly via affective/emotional, cognitive and behavioural
dimensions. For instance, Patterson et al. (2006) identified four main dimensions of consumer
engagement: absorption, dedication, vigour and interaction. They state that the consumer
must be aware of the engagement object, should be enthusiastic and must be determined to
interact with the object of engagement. Along similar lines, Vivek (2009) agrees that
consumer engagement is a multi-dimensional concept; he identified five conceptual
consumer engagement dimensions:

Literature review
13
• awareness – being conscious of the focus of the engagement object
• enthusiasm – strong excitement about the object of engagement
• interaction – involving the exchange of ideas and feelings with the engagement
object
• activity – actions of engagement
• extraordinary experience – sense of perceptions and processes
It should be noted that the dimensions of consumer engagement identified by both Patterson
et al. (2006) and Vivek (2009) are similar in many respects, regarding consumers’ awareness,
enthusiasm, willingness to devote energy and willingness to interact with others.
Hollebeek (2011), Hollebeek et al. (2014) and Brodie et al. (2011), based on their thorough
analyses of previous studies on the characteristics and definitions of consumer engagement
dimensions, they classified consumer engagement into the most commonly identified
dimensions: cognitive, emotional and behavioural dimensions. Hollebeek et al. (2014, p. 154)
explains consumer cognitive engagement as “a consumer's level of brand-related thought
processing and elaboration in a particular consumer/brand interaction”. Based on this
interpretation, it is plausible to approach Patterson et al.’s (2006) “vigour” dimension, which
is defined as a consumer’s level of mental activities during the interaction with the
engagement objects, and Vivek’s (2009) “awareness” dimension as a cognitive dimension.
Moreover, the emotional dimension of engagement is expressed by “dedication” (Cheung,
Lee and Jin, 2011; Patterson et al., 2006) or “affection” (Hollebeek et al., 2014). Patterson et
al. (2006) state that “dedication” refers to the consumer’s sense of belonging to certain firms.
According to Hollebeek et al. (2014. p. 154), the emotional dimension of engagement also
can be expressed as “a consumer's degree of positive brand-related affect in a particular
consumer/brand interaction”.
Consumer behavioural engagement is related to the direct act of engagement, expressed as
“activation” (Holeebook et al., 2014), “activity” (Vivek, 2009) and “interaction” (Patterson et
al., 2006). It is defined as “a consumer's level of energy, effort and time spent on a brand in a
particular consumer/brand interaction” (Holeebook et al., 2014, p. 154). It is worth
mentioning that the majority of consumer engagement studies consider engagement to be a
multi-dimensional concept consisting of behavioural dimensions (action), cognitive

Literature review
14
dimensions (thoughts) and emotional dimensions (feelings). Malciute (2012) mentions that,
despite the relatively large number of researchers who follow the uni-dimensional
perspective, the main emphasis remains on the three aforementioned dimensions. Moreover,
Malciute (2012) also states that marketing scholars who support the uni-dimensional
perspective indicate the importance of the behavioural dimension as the main aspect of
engagement. Meanwhile, they emphasise the other dimensions as supplementary but also
significant and very (theoretically considered to be emotional and cognitive).
Building on these previous studies (Bowden, 2009; Hollebeek, 2011; Patterson et al., 2006;
Pham and Avnet, 2009; van Doorn et al., 2010; Vivek et al., 2012; Algesheimer et al., 2005;
Calder, et al., 2009; Brodie et al., 2011), a recent study, conducted by Dessart et al. (2016),
proposed a refined conceptualisation of consumer engagement dimensionality, supporting the
existence of three well-recognised dimensions, namely the cognitive, behavioural and
emotional dimensions (Brodie et al., 2011; Hollebeek, 2011; Hollebeek et al., 2014), yet the
authors added, for the enhancement of the understanding of theses dimensions, seven sub-
dimensions in their conceptual works . Specifically, to operationalise the behavioural aspect
of engagement, Dessart et al. (2016) explained the concept of behavioural engagement as the
level of energy, effort and time spent (Hollebeek et al., 2014), and refined its nature through
three dimensions (sharing, learning and endorsing). Similarly, cognitive engagement, or that
level of cognitive interest (Vivek et al., 2014), previously addressed as one dimension, is
conceptually classified into two sub-dimensions of active mental activities: attention and
absorption. Lastly, the emotional aspect of engagement, which prior research explains as a
general degree of positive brand-related affect (Hollebeek et al., 2014) or feelings (Vivek et
al., 2014), is conceptualised and operated through measures of enthusiasm and enjoyment.
These conceptual refinements contribute to construct clarity and rigorously add operational
precision to the constructs previously identified by Hollebeek et al. (2014) and Vivek et al.
(2014) (Table 3).

Literature review
15
Table 3: Definitions of the dimensions and sub-dimensions of consumer engagement
# Dimensions/Sub-dimensions References
1 Affective
Summative and enduring level of emotions experienced by a
consumer
Brodie et al. (2011)
Calder et al. (2013)
Hollebeek (2011,
2014)
Mollen and Wilson
(2010)
Patterson et al. (2006)
Enthusiasm
Intrinsic level of excitement and interest regarding the engagement
partner
Enjoyment
Pleasure and happiness derived from interactions with the
engagement partner
2 Behavioural
Behavioural manifestations towards an engagement partner, beyond a
purchase, which result from motivational drivers
Gummerus et al.
(2012)
Hollebeek (2011,
2014)
Van Doorn et al.
(2010)
Verhoef et al. (2010)
Sharing
The act of providing content, information, experiences, ideas or other
resources to the engagement partner
Learning
The act of seeking content, information, experiences, ideas or other
resources from the engagement partner
Endorsing
The act of sanctioning, showing support for referring resources
shared by the engagement partner
3 Cognitive
Set of enduring and active mental states that a consumer experiences
Hollebeek (2011,
2014)
Mollen and Wilson
(2010)
Patterson et al. (2006)
Vivek et al. (2012)
Attention
Cognitive availability and amount of time spent thinking about, and
being attentive to, the engagement partner
Absorption
Level of consumer’s concentration on, and immersion in, an
engagement partner

Literature review
16
Based on the analysis of the current marketing literature regarding the nature and
dimensionality of consumer engagement, it is plausible to conclude that the conceptual
essence of consumer engagement highlights the role of interactive consumer experiences with
and around focal engagement objects. Moreover, consumer engagement is a multi-
dimensional construct consisting of three main dimensions – cognitive, emotional and
behavioural dimensions.
2.4.Consumer engagement in online brand communities
Central to the discussion of engagement is the rise of brand communities. it has been
observed that consumers increasingly participate in groups of like-minded people who
interact around a focal object (Koh and Kim, 2004); most often, the object is a brand
(Veloutsou, 2009), and it is considered a significant factor contributing to the success of the
brand (Algesheimer et al., 2005; Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006; Fournier and Lee, 2009; Schau
et al., 2009). This is reflected in the proposition that the emotional bonds between consumers
and the brand can be fostered in community settings (Algesheimer et al., 2005; Bagozzi and
Dholakia, 2006). The notion of engaging with a community of like-minded individuals was
first proposed by Algesheimer et al. (2005, p. 21), referring to community engagement as
“members’ intrinsic motivation to interact and cooperate with community members”.
In an attempt to address consumer behaviour within brand communities, Algesheimer et al.
(2005) studied consumers' community engagement with the offline brand community context
in relation to a European car club. Their research findings emphasise the interactive, two-way
nature of consumer engagement within brand communities. Within the emerging of the
internet environment, this insight becomes even more crucial as the number of people with
similar interests and geographically-dispersed gather in a virtual context to communicate,
exchange information, build relations, and share and discuss ideas. This virtual environment
not only allows consumer to participate in consumer-to-consumer communications (Hoffman
and Novak (1996), but also, according Nambisan and Baron (2007), could provide access to
business-to-consumer interactions which, in turn, enable consumers to play an active role in
interactive highly immediate communications, thus establishing completely new forms of
consumer-brand relationships (Brodie et al. 2011).

Literature review
17
Examples of virtual communication tools include discussion forums, bulletin boards, chat
rooms, personal web pages, email, social networks and blogs (De Valck et al., 2009). Brodie
et al., (2011), in his exploratory netnographic study of the company Vibra-Train Ltd, with its
online platform, suggest that theses virtual communities feature brand community
characteristics, proposed by Muniz and O’Guinn (2001). The primary community marker is
consciousness of kind is descried as “shared consciousness, a way of thinking about things
that is more than shared attitudes or perceived similarity” (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001, p.413).
In this regard, consumers feel connected with other community members. The second marker
is shared rituals and traditions: “the community’s shared history, culture, and consciousness”
(Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001, p.413). within this social process, consumer create their own
meaning of the community experience, share and exchange the brand stories (ibid).
Ultimately, the third indicator of community is a sense of moral responsibility, which is “a
felt sense of duty or obligation to the community as a whole, and to its individual members”
(Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001, p.413).
Further, Brodie et al.’s (2011) study provides some insight into the existence of engagement
practices in a virtual brand community. In this respect, they identified five forms of sub-
process engagement, including learning, sharing, developing, advocating and socialising,
which can be directed towards the brand or the community members (ibid); all of these sub-
processes demonstrate emotional, cognitive and behavioural engagement dimensions (ibid).
In addition, Dessart et al. (2015, p. 32) define an online brand community as “a grouping of
individuals sharing a mutual interest in a brand, using electronic mediation to overcome real-
life space and time limitations”. They emphasise the significance of virtual communities for
providing researcher with insightful information about consumer behaviour and cultures
(Dessart et al., 2015).
Within this context, the current marketing literature shows a number of research attempting
to investigate engagement practices in online communities, including research about
motivations and antecedents to contribute to online communities (i.e. Hennig-Thurau et al.,
2004; Wiertz and de Ruyter, 2007; Nambisan and Baron, 2007), the impact of electronic
word-of-mouth in the online brand community (i.e. De Valck et al., 2009; Chevalier and
Mayzlin, 2006) and behavioural aspects of online brand engagement (i.e. Schau et al., 2009).
Furthermore, the notion of online engagement within a social media context has gained

Literature review
18
particular interest among marketing academics and professionals (Hollebeek et al., 2014;
Wirtz et al., 2013; Malthouse and Hofacker, 2010; Kuo and Feng, 2013; Dessart et al., 2015),
given their interactive nature. For instance, according to Muntinga, Moorman and Smit’s
(2011, p.16) typology of consumers’ online brand related activities, consumer engagement
with brand in various social media platforms, can be studied using three continuous levels:
consuming, contributing and creating. First, consuming refers to minimal level of online
participation including, viewing videos and pictures, reading product reviews. The second
type of online participation, regards as the moderate level, is concerned with contributing
activities such as such as engaging in wall post provided by the brand or other users in social
media pages(ibid). The ultimate level of usage denotes actively participate in the social media
pages, such as posting product reviews and publishing videos and pictures on brand SNS
pages. Similarly, Based on Muntinga, Moorman, and Smit’s (2011) typology, Tisa and Men
(2013) examine how consumer engage with brands on Facebook brand page. They identified
two types of engagement activities including consuming and contributing.
In conclusion, despite its relatively short history in the marketing literature, multiple studies
have addressed consumer engagement from a variety of perspectives, and the literature
includes conceptual contributions and both qualitative and quantitative studies. Considering
the insights of the research in relation to online brand communities, it was concluded that
well-established online brand communities display many dynamic practices that continuously
develop and inspire the interactive consumer engagement experience with the brand and
among members. Consumer engagement in relation to such practices ultimately plays a
pivotal role in value co-creation, from which brands can reap the benefits, in the form of
increased brand commitment and loyalty (Cova et al., 2007). For these reasons, studying
consumer engagement in the context of online brand communities appears to require more
attention, as the literature is still in its infancy in regard to our understanding of how online
consumer engagement should be conceptualised and measured. Yet, although the available
consumer engagement literature clearly indicates an increasing level of inquiry into this area,
it has formed a solid foundation for further investigation.

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
Having considered the concepts relating to consumers’ engagement in the online community
in Chapter Two, this chapter provides a detailed description of the research philosophy and
methodology used to investigate online consumer engagement. It opens with a discussion on
the philosophical assumptions of this study, which includes details regarding the oncological
and epistemological issues. The chapter then describes the research methodology, with a
discussion of the research design; i.e. the research strategy and research methods. Lastly, the
chapter concludes with a review of the ethical considerations.
2.1.Research philosophy
A research philosophy is “the development of knowledge and the nature of that knowledge”
(Saunders et al., 2009, p. 107). Two major research philosophies have been identified:
positivism and interpretivism. Within the marketing realm, the positivist and interpretivist
approaches have been described with regard to their epistemological and ontological
assumptions (Hudson and Ozanne, 1988). The philosophical assumptions directing positivists
include “an objective view of reality, which the researcher seeks to measure and explain”
(Bahl and Milne, 2006, p. 198). It seeks the creation of “low-like generalisations” (Saunders
et al., 2009, p. 116). Interpretivism is developed based on criticisms of positivism, in the
sense that the social world in business and management should follow more flexible research
approaches and avoid generalisable knowledge by using definite laws (Saunders et al., 2009).
As the aim of this study is to explore the online brand community engagement phenomenon
via evidence of consumers’ engaging practices, which according to Saunders et al. (2009, p.
111), are highly subjective, the philosophical assumptions that underlie this study relate to
interpretivism. The ontological and epistemological assumptions of interpretivism are that
realities are socially constructed, “in that all human knowledge is developed, transmitted and
maintained in a social situation” (Berger and Luckman, 1967, p. 3). Therefore, realities are
multiple in the sense that different individuals and groups have different perspectives
(Hudson and Ozanne, 1988). Accordingly, researchers are able to understand social
phenomena through the meanings that people give to them (Saunders et al., 2009). By its
nature, this research paradigm assumes that, by placing people in their social contexts, there

Methodology
20
is greater opportunity to understand the perceptions they have of their own activities (ibid). In
the case of this study, the social aspect of the engagement concept and the research focus of
an individual consumer as a unit of analysis are much too complex to be suitable for a series
of “law-like generalisations” (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 116).
Adopting the position of positivism would, in this study, be inappropriate with respect to the
research objective of the study, where the social interactions must be taken into
consideration. Hence, the researcher considered that the interpretive approach would yield
rich insights into the complexity of such a social world. This study moved away from
explaining consumers’ behaviour by establishing causal relationships between variables (a
positivist position). Rather, it is concerned with the understanding of consumers’ behaviour
by viewing the online engagement phenomenon holistically, closely observing the
participants, entering their realities and interpreting their perceptions (the interpretivist
position) (Bogdan and Taylor, 1975; Hoepfl, 1997; Shaw, 1999). Therefore, the researcher
was able to embrace the complex and dynamic quality of the social aspect of the online
engagement phenomenon by generating rich descriptions of actual consumer engagement
practices in real-life contexts that uncover the meaning that those involved ascribe to them.
2.2.Secondary research
To examine the previous literature, a systematic review of the published literature was
conducted in March 2017. In doing so, five key steps were followed: “(1) planning the
review, (2) locating studies, (3) appraising contributions, (4) analysing and synthesising
information, and (5) reporting ‘best evidence’ ” (Briner and Denyer, 2012, p. 115).
2.2.1. Planning the review
The overall objective of the review was to explore published literature in relation to
consumer engagement in online brand communities. This exploration was broken down into a
number of questions:
▪ What are the theoretical meanings of consumer engagement and brand communities?
▪ What are the foundations underlying these two concepts?
▪ What are the clear descriptions of online engagement processes?
▪ What are the scope and the nature of the online consumer engagement phenomenon?

Methodology
21
▪ What are the clear descriptions of online brand communities?
2.2.2. Locating and selecting relevant studies
The databases ScienceDirect, EBSCOHost, JSTOR and Google Scholar were used for the
purpose of identifying and locating any relevant documents. These covered the broader
subject area and topic associated with the research subject. After the initial search was
conducted, the literature search proceeded, focusing on studies directly related to the research
question. The key search terms were used to search the database in all fields (article title,
abstract, key words and text). The search terms used were the following:
▪ “Consumer engagement” or “customer engagement”
▪ “Brand community” and “online brand community”
▪ “Social media engagement”, “online brand community” or “virtual brand community”
▪ “Brand engagement” and “online brand engagement” and “consumer brand
engagement”
▪ “Engagement dimensionality” and “cognitive, emotional, behavioural dimensions”
▪ “Engagement behaviour” and “consumer engagement behaviour”
▪ “Customer engagement process”, “consumer engagement process” or “online
engagement process”
Empirical, theoretical and conceptual studies were included. Each article retrieved from the
database was evaluated for relevance by reading the abstract. Inclusion and exclusion criteria
were applied during the search process to identify studies directly related to the research
topic. They were also used to assess the articles retrieved. The inclusion criteria were original
studies that reported the dimensions of consumer engagement in an online brand community.
Articles which did not focus directly on the research topic were excluded. In other words,
considering that this research focused more on the nature and dimensionality of consumer
engagement (cognitive, emotional and behavioural dimensions), studies which purely
investigated the antecedents and consequences of consumer engagement, in addition to the
role of consumer engagement in building brand loyalty, were excluded. Duplicate papers,
which had been identified previously, were also excluded. Therefore, the search of databases
resulted in the retrieval of 16 papers, and a Google Scholar search resulted in no additional
papers (see Table 4).

Methodology
22
Table 4: Database search results
Moreover, to increase the likelihood of identifying most of the relevant studies, the references
of the papers initially found were investigated. Within this method, many articles which were
not included in the database were found. Accordingly, journals were used to locate these
articles, which were highly relevant to the literature review. The following journals were
consulted: Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Theory
and Practice, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Journal of Interactive Marketing,
International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal
of Service Management and Journal of Consumer Research. The search terms included the
authors’ names and the articles’ titles. The search for these journals resulted in nine
additional papers (see Table 5).
2.2.3. Critically appraising the relevant studies
Critically appraising the studies included in the review with respect to the quality criteria
formulated as part of the systematic review protocol is a significant part of the systematic
review. Thus, the studies were reviewed according to the quality criteria covering issues such
as the theoretical and practical significance of the research, the rigour and appropriateness of
the research methodology, and the validity and credibility of the research results. In doing so,
Petticrew and Roberts’s (2006) critical appraisal checklist was used to evaluate the relevant
studies (see Appendix 1). Therefore, the number of the main studies which were selected for
this review following the application of the critical appraisal criteria was 21 (Table 5).
# engines/Database # of articles Comments
1 ScienceDirect 1707 Most of the articles were excluded due to irrelevancy.
4 articles were retrieved.
2 EBESCOHost 28 10 articles met the inclusion criteria.
3 JSTOR 615 2 articles were retrieved for relevancy.
4 Google Scholar 1390 The results did not identify additional papers that met
inclusion criteria.

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23
Table 5: Summary table of articles retrieved from databases and academic journals
Search of databases using search terms
# Article title Authors Study type Databases/
Journals
Appraisal
Quality
1 The social cognitive approach
to consumers' engagement behaviour
in online brand communities
Kim et al.
(2013)
Empirical
study
EBESCOHost Include
2 Consumer engagement in online
brand communities: A social media
perspective
Dessart et al.
(2015)
Empirical
Study
EBESCOHost Include
3 Capturing consumer engagement:
Duality, dimensionality and
measurement
Dessart et al.
(2016)
Empirical
study
EBESCOHost Include
4 Consumer engagement in a
virtual brand community: An
exploratory analysis
Brodie et al.
(2013)
Empirical
study
SienceDirect Include
5 Consumer brand engagement in social
media: Conceptualisation, scale
development and validation
Hollebook et
al. (2014)
Conceptual
study
SienceDirect Include
6 The impact of online brand
community type on consumers'
community
engagement behaviors: Consumer-
created vs. marketer-created online
brand communities in online social-
networking web sites
lee et al.
(2011)
Empirical
study
EBESCOHost Include
7 The impact of external social and
internal personal forces on
consumers’ brand community
engagement on Facebook.
Simon et al.
(2016)
Empirical EBESCOHost Include
8 Customer engagement with tourism
social media brands
Paul et al.
(2016)
Empirical
Study
ScienceDirect Exclude
9 Word of mouth communication within
online communities: Conceptualising
the online social network
Brown et al.
(2007)
Conceptual
Study
ScienceDirect Include
10 The social influence of brand
communities: Evidence from
European car clubs
Algesheimer
et al. (2005)
empirical
Study
JSTOR Include
11 Brand community Muniz and
O'Guinn
(2011)
Theoretical
study
JSTOR Include

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24
12 Consumer empowerment through
Internet-based co-creation
Fuller et al.
(2009)
Conceptual
study
JSTOR Include
Search of academic journals using article names and authors
13 Understanding consumer-to-consumer
interactions in virtual communities:
The salience of reciprocity
Chan and Li
(2010)
empirical
study
Journal of
Business
Research
Include
14 The process of consumer engagement:
A conceptual framework
Bowden et al.
(2009)
Conceptual
study
Journal of
Marketing
Theory and
Practice
Include
15 Popularity of brand posts on brand fan
pages: An investigation of the effects
of social media marketing
De Vries et
al. (2012)
Empirical
study
Journal of
Interactive
Marketing
Include
16 A social influence model of consumer
participation in network- and small-
group-based virtual communities
Dholakia et
al. (2004)
Empirical
study
International
Journal of
Research in
Marketing
Include
17 EWOM: The impact of customer-to-
customer online know-how exchange
on customer value and loyalty
Gruen et al.
(2006)
Empirical
study
Journal of
Business
Research
Include
18 Managing brands and consumer
engagement in online brand
communities
Wirtz et al.
(2013)
Conceptual
study
Journal of
Service
Management
Include
19 Consumer engagement behaviour:
Theoretical foundations and research
directions
Van Doorn et
al. (2010)
Conceptual
study
Journal of
Service
Research
Include
20 Engagement, telepresence, and
interactivity in online consumer
experiences: Reconciling scholastic
and managerial perspectives
Mollen and
Wilson
(2010)
Conceptual
study
Journal of
Business
Research
Include
21 Consumer engagement in a Facebook
brand community
Gummerus et
al. (2012)
Empirical
study
Management
Research
Review
Include

Methodology
25
2.2.4. Analysing and synthesising the literature
A critical synthesis of the articles specified in the summary (Table 5) was conducted. The
main issues addressed in the literature were reviewed and organised under various headings
(i.e. “Engagement”, “Consumer engagement: theoretical foundation” and “the nature and
dimensionality” and “consumer engagement in online brand community”).
2.3.Primary Research
After reviewing and analysing previous marketing literature in relation to consumer
engagement in online brand community, the researcher has undertaken the primary research,
where she adopted qualitative research approach and used the method of online observation.
2.3.1. Research strategy
There are various research approaches employed in modern social research: quantitative,
qualitative or mixed research methodologies (Bahl and Milne, 2006). It is important to
consider the research approach adopted in the study, since each of the three approaches has
its own unique benefits and weaknesses, and thus careful selection is necessary (Allen et al.,
2008). Quantitative methods involve conducting empirical studies, followed by use of
mathematics and statistics in the analysis of quantifiable phenomena. Conversely, qualitative
methodologies do not focus on numerical interpretations but seek to gain an in-depth
understanding of the social phenomenon through the collection of information or facts from a
few study objects in context, acknowledging the subjectivity of the social world.
[I]n social research, humans are the researchers as well as the object of study, which
means that pure objectivity is impossible (Esterberg, 2002, p. 11).
The mixed method approach adopts both qualitative and quantitative research methods. In the
case of this study, a qualitative research methodology was the optimal choice, due to its
ability to provide a holistic understanding of the online engagement phenomenon. It was,
primarily, underpinned by the research philosophy adopted by the researcher (interpretivism)
and the research focus of the feelings and attitude of consumers towards the online brand
community. Moreover, given that the object studied (i.e. the consumer) is a complex
phenomenon, it was believed that it would not be captured appropriately via a quantitative
study. In addition, this approach was chosen due to the exploratory nature of the research

Methodology
26
objectives and its suitability for answering the research questions. Accordingly, qualitative
research allowed deeper insights into how consumers engage in the online brand community.
2.3.2. Research method
This exploratory research sought to capture the naturally occurring relations between
consumers and the online brand community using the method of online observation, also
known as netnography. Netnography, conceptualised by Kozinets (1997), is a “new
qualitative research methodology that adapts ethnographic research techniques to study the
cultures and communities that are emerging through computer-mediated communications”
(Kozinets, 2002, p. 62).
Considering that this study has a specific focus on online engagement, netnography, as a
naturalistic research technique developed especially for the virtual environment, was
recognised as an appropriate methodology. In other words, online engagement practices
would be best captured by examining how these practices are actively created in their natural
settings, rather than that created in conventional settings, such as interviews or focus groups
(as the participants act naturally in the presence of the researcher). In this regard, the
researcher would be able to uncover much of the consumer interactions, attaining a more
holistic understanding. Another reason for using this method is the review of prominent
studies within the realm of online consumer engagement phenomenon, which demonstrated
the merit of using the netnography approach. It had been successfully used to study the
behavioural patterns of online consumer groups (Muñiz and O'Guinn, 2001) and to examine
the multi-dimensional nature of consumer engagement in online brand communities (i.e.
Brodie et al., 2011). Kozinets (2010, p. 61) recommends the following six methodological
stages and procedures for netnographic studies, which this research followed: entrée (the
defining of research questions and the identification and selection of appropriate online
communities for a study); data collection; analysis and interpretation; ensuring ethical
standards; and, finally, writing, presenting and reporting the findings.
2.3.3. Entrée and research setting
Entrée allows the researcher to learn more about the online environment and the communities
that are identified: its member, its topics and how it works (Kozinets, 2010). Accordingly,

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27
Facebook, as an underlying platform, was selected for this study. The rationale for selecting
this online platform is based on the premise that Facebook is considered the market leader in
social network sites, with 1.712 billion active accounts (Statista, 2016). Moreover, many
companies consider Facebook to be the most significant social media platform for their
business, with a total of 94% of marketers having a Facebook brand page (Stelzner, 2014).
Thus, Facebook provides numerous examples of brand-related communities in the form of
Facebook pages. To narrow down the variety of brands within Facebook, the author
considered global brands which have implemented a successful social media strategy. The
selection was based on a scan of the top 25 most influential brands on Facebook in 2016 (see
Appendix 2). Of the 25 brands, based on their Mavrck rating, two communities were
selected: 1) https://www.facebook.com/Starbucks/ (number of page likes: 36,693,405) and 2)
https://www.facebook.com/PlayStation/ (total number of page likes: 38,218,831). The
selection of the two communities was guided by the criteria proposed by Kozinets (2010):
• Are the communities relevant to the research focus and questions?
• Do they have recent and regular communications?
• Do they have a flow of communications between participants?
• Do they have a number of different participants?
• Do they offer detailed and descriptively rich data?
Following this approach, the Starbucks and PlayStation Facebook pages embody appropriate
selections. Both communities have prominent levels of popularity and a high degree of
activity which has resulted in richly descriptive data. According to the Socailbaker’s (2017)
analysis report, the average audience growth of Starbucks and PlayStation on Facebook over
one month is approximately 0.18% and 0.35%, respectively.
Regarding Starbucks, it is one of the most “liked” brand on the Facbook with 36,693,405
total page likes (Figure 1)(Socialbakers, 2017). Although the coffee brand does not post
Facebook updates frequently, with an average page post per week of 0.80 (Socailbaker,
2017), its posts gain thousands of likes, shares, reactions and comments. It should be noted
that the majority of the posts on its timeline are from its fans. The content of Starbucks posts
is varied, including fun posts, tips on how its products are made and announcements
regarding new products. Moreover, it has local pages for other international markets,

Methodology
28
including America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and, finally, Asia. These adopt a similar
social media strategy with respect to the frequency of posts. This study investigated the main
official Starbucks page.
Figure 1: The number and percentage of Starbucks fans by country (Socialbakers, 2017)
With respect to Sony PlayStation, it is the most popular account among all of the Sony
Facebook pages, including those relating to pictures, electronics, music and online
entertainment with 38,218,831 total page likes (Figure 2). Unlike Starbucks, PlayStation
updates its page on a daily basis, with an average page post per week of 36.20 (Socialbaker,
2017). The content of the PlayStation Facebook page is focused predominantly on video
games, the new PlayStation 4 and virtual reality games.
Figure 2: The number and percentage of PlayStation fans by country (Socialbakers, 2017).
2.3.4. Data collection and analysis
Following a netnography approach, the study began with non-participant observation of the
two communities. This involved observing the members of the communities while staying
48%
7%
6%
3%
36%
Starbucks fans by country
United state 17 864 226
Mexico 2 377 881
Philippines 2 115 928
United Kingdom 1 145 440
Other Countries 13 324 218
23% 3%
3%
2%
69%
PlayStation fans by country
United States 8 677 237
India 1 151 674
United Kingdom 1 148 609
France 895 878
Other and not yet 26 472 759

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distanced from the communities and their interactions (Kozinets, 2010). Non-participant
observation was selected as the main strategy for gathering primary data, because it is a
relatively unobtrusive form of observation with a minimal influence on the research setting.
Considering that, in netnography, most of the activities predominantly involve textual
communication, observation involves extensive reading and observation of text-based
communication. The observation began with a broad-scope observation to gain an overview
of the online communities, moving to a more focused observation in which the author
narrowed down the observation to investigate posts with high-interaction rates. In this regard,
data was captured through a direct copy from the computer-mediated communications. In
addition, the author’s impressions and reflections regarding communities’ interactions were
written as field notes. The posts of the Starbucks community were posted between March
2016 and June 2017 (22 pictures and eight videos posts). In addition to Starbucks posts, the
Starbucks Facebook page includes visitors’ posts in its timeline. The author accessed these
posts from the end of April 2017 to the end of June 2017. Regarding the PlayStation
Facebook Page, in order to secure a sufficient volume of engagement practices, posts which
were posted between November 2016 and May 2017 were collected (480 posts) (Table 6).
Table 6: Facebook posts created by PlayStation between November 2016 and May 2017
# Date # of picture posts # of video posts Total
1 2-31 May 2017 47 34 81
2 1-29 April 2017 43 27 70
3 1-31 March 2017 69 33 102
4 1-28 February 43 32 75
5 1-31 Jan 34 19 53
6 2-31 December 30 34 64
7 1-30 November 21 14 35
TOTAL: 480 posts
For the analysis process, Spiggle’s (1994) framework for the analysis and interpretation of
qualitative data was used. Firstly, the analysis of the collected data began by highlighting key
phrases in order to facilitate the implementation of initial coding. Each code represented a
certain facet of the consumer engagement phenomenon under study (i.e. cognitive, emotional
and behavioural aspects). To contextualise the coding categories, patterns were established,
and then the emergent themes were compared with the underlying presumptions about the
consumer engagement process which were derived from the literature. It should be noted that
the analysis process continued alongside the observation process and that the two affected
each other via an iterative process, continually revising and refining.

Methodology
30
2.3.5. Ethics
The current ethical and legal framework for conducting human subject research rests on the
principles of autonomy, beneficence and justice. The first principle, autonomy, reflected in
the process of informed consent, is where the participant is informed about all aspects of the
research and offers his/her consent to participate. In the context of online research,
researchers may be exempt from obtaining consent for data collected from the public domain
which are accessible to anyone, such as a television or newspaper interview (Haggerty,
2004). The researcher of this study waived the requirement of obtaining informed consent
under 45 Code Federal Regulation (CFR) 46.116(d) where the four following conditions were
met (Institutional Review Board, n.d.):
• the research involves no more than minimal risk to the participants
• the waiver or alteration will not adversely affect the rights and welfare of the
participants
• the research could not practicably be carried out without the waiver or alteration
• whenever appropriate, the participants will be provided with additional pertinent
information after participation.
With respect to benefits, the current study can contribute to the growing pool of knowledge
on the consumer engagement of online communities and interactions, in the sense that it
grants the researcher potential access to a geographically and culturally diverse population.
To assess any potential harm associated with the current study, including the invasion of the
subjects’ privacy and the violation of confidentiality, the researcher protected the privacy of
research subjects by disguising the identity of the subjects. Considering that online research
is subject to anonymity and pseudonymity, where “people invest just as much into their
online identities as they do in their real ones” (Frankel and Siang, 1999, p.13), the researcher
was able to protect the online identities of the research subject. The last principle governing
research involving human subjects is justice, which can be interpreted as “fair, equitable, and
appropriate treatment in light of what is due or owed to persons” (Frankel and Siang ,1999, p.
14). Applying the principle of justice to the current study was based on identifying the
benefits and risks of the research and assessing how they are distributed fairly.

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS
To address the research questions regarding the extent to which consumers were engaged
with brands and other members on Facebook brand pages, the findings examine the concept
of consumer engagement by focusing on three main areas: 1) the object of engagement; 2) the
level of consumer engagement with both objects; 3) the engagement dimensionality within
the context of the Starbucks Facebook page and the PlayStation Facebook page. Accordingly,
the first sub-section addresses the object of engagement, while the second sub-section
considers the level of consumers’ interactive experiences with the brand and the brand
community members. The final sub-section examines the presence of cognitive, emotional
and behavioural dimensions, illustrating the different aspects of consumer engagement within
brand communities. The three main areas are supported by short quotes/extracts from
consumers’ posts or comments.
4.1.The object of engagement
The observation of the two pages shows clear evidence of dual engagement, interaction with
the community and interaction with the brand itself. Consumers interact with the brand
through the posts (pictures and videos) which are published on the Facebook brand page’s
wall or newsfeed. They “like”/react and share these post in their Facebook profile. They also
write a comment under the content in the comments section. As users interact with that
content (i.e. liking/reacting, sharing and commenting on it), the content will generate a
greater presence in their news feed. For instance, when Starbucks announced the return of red
cups on November 5th
, 2016 , it gained a high interaction rate, receiving 6,153 shares and
111,626 likes/reactions (see Table 7). Most importantly, a considerable amount of discussion
occurred, mainly about the theme of the post, with 6,479 comments. Users engaged mainly
with the brand’s post (regarding the Starbucks red cup), and some interaction occurred with
the other members. It should be noted that members can interact with each other either by
posting replies to other members’ comments in a comment thread or by liking or reacting to
their comments.

Findings
32
Table 7: The collected posts of Starbucks between March 2016 and June 2017
Pictures
# Date Shares Reactions Comments Views
1
26-Jun-17 229 6000 284
-
2
19-Jun-17 1780 43000 839
-
3
15-Jun-17 304 11000 386
-
4
25-May-17 225 2500 123
-
5
10-May-17 157 4100 158
-
6 03-Mar-17 853 8,355 671 -
7 10-Feb-17 3,064 96,809 6,271 -
8 04-Jan-17 401 12,939 472 -
9 27-Dec-16 131 5,702 193 -
10 10-Nov-16 5,791 98,664 3,412 -
11 05-Nov-16 6,153 111,626 6,479 -
12 23-Sep-16 360 8,077 137 -
13 20-Sep-16 617 4,451 204 -
14 12-Aug-16 1,591 117,086 1,680 -
15 27-Jun-16 407 4,622 353 -
16 23-May-16 6,718 25,494 6,285 -
17 14-Apr-16 131 46,630 418 -
18 30-Mar-16 777 7,762 377 -
19 28-Mar-16 1,766 95,983 1,235 -
20 15-Mar-16 3,170 103,295 1,506 -
Videos
21 09-Dec-16 3,798 52,983 3,121 4.1M
22 10-Oct-16 5,384 50,797 3,076 5.6M
23 04-Oct-16 720 720 2,156 3.8M
24 27-Dec-16 262 3,441 440 163000
25 26-Dec-16 3,981 17,420 534 2.2M
26 22-Sep-16 9,577 39,910 1,089 2.2M
27 16-Sep-16 60,693 105,726 3,417 4.2M
28 12-Sep-16 7,913 24,747 982 5.2M

Findings
33
While the 5th
November post indicates consume-to-brand interaction, the 19th
June post
clearly illustrates consumer-to-consumer engagement. More specifically, on June 19th
, 2017
(Table 7), Starbucks posted a picture of raising the LGBTQ Pride flag atop its Seattle
headquarters in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Seattle Pride Week. In this post, a great
level of C2C engagement occurred, where consumers actively engaged with other members.
The following table (Table 8) summarises the comments which gained the most C2C
engagement.
Table 8: Consumer-to-consumer interactions regarding the LGBTQ flag post (Starbucks)
Comments Likes Reaction Replies
“My husband and I were legally married at a Starbucks in DC!”
(JC)
41 38 14
“The most patriotic thing you can do is promote diversity. As an
American based company, well done Starbucks!” (DD)
92 37 48
“Your just coffee Starbucks no one cares about what you believe
in. Honestly” (KD)
161 54 47
The most common topics discussed in relation to these three comments were equality,
freedom and diversity. Consumers voiced their opinions about these comments in two basic
formats: either by supporting other consumers’ opinions or by criticising them. They also
expressed their feelings, whether positive or negative, by liking the comments and reacting to
them. However, the analysis indicates that consumer-to-brand interactions are more evident
than consumer-to-consumer interactions on the Starbucks page.
Regarding the PlayStation page, the analysis of the page shows significant evidence of
consumer-to-consumer interactions either in the form of replies, reactions or both(see
appendix 3 for more details). Similarly, to the Starbucks page, consumer interactions in the
top comments take two forms: either endorsement or criticism. They range from helping
other consumers by answering their questions to expressing their opinions regarding certain
topics. This is evidenced in BP’s comment on the PlayStation page’s 1st
January post:
“PlayStation New Year's Eve Countdown 201 Here's to 2017... and beyond”:

Findings
34
B.P: Hey media person, tell your boss we want backwards compatability in 2017.
Edit: Don't waste a reply by saying "Its too complicated because of the architecture" or "That's what
Playstation Now is for." We know, and we still want it.
[Extract from PlayStation Page]
This comment received 189 replies (the highest number of replies over seven months – see
Appendix 3) and 629 likes. The responses to this comment can be categorised into the
following themes: 1) expressing their agreement with BP’s comments; 2) suggesting an
alternative brand which provides backward compatibility and sharing their personal
experience of using it; or 3) defending PlayStation and advocating reasons why they do not
provide backward compatibility. It should be noted that, while the PlayStation page appears
to have a lower amount of consumer interactions with the brand itself when compared with
Starbucks, it generates an acceptable level of engagement on Facebook in terms of liking,
sharing and commenting on the brand content (see Appendix 4).
To summarise, the analysis of the data shows a clear indication of the dual focus of
community participation, which is consistent with the findings reported by Dessart et al.
(2016). The data explicitly indicates that consumers engage in a dialogue with the brand and
the community which, in turn, emphasises that engagement in the OBC is not limited to
direct interactions with the brand but incorporates interaction with the community members.
It should be noted that consumers’ interactions with the brand and the community affect and
sustain each other as part of dynamic interactive experiences. They develop their relationship
with the community based on their common interest in the brand. They help, support and
share their common feelings towards the brand, which, in most cases, may be reciprocally
enhancing practices. This reciprocity relationship reflects a sense of duty and obligation to
both the community and the brand, which is consistent with Muniz’s and O'Guinn’s (2001)
identification of brand communities. To illustrate, consumers seek other members' advice to
solve brand-related problems. Meanwhile, members reciprocate the support they receive by
the exchange of various resources (i.e. information, social support and/or emotional support).
It has also been found that the level of consumer engagement with the brand and the
community varies widely. To illustrate, the data shows that only a moderate number of
consumers are strongly engaged, in contrast to the remainder, for whom their level of
engagement is relatively low. These distinctions are significant, because those strongly

Findings
35
engaged consumers, who are most likely to be brand enthusiasts, are qualitatively different
from weakly engaged customers, who are satisfied but unenthusiastic in terms of the strength
of their relationship with the brand and the community.
4.2.The level of consumer engagement on Facebook brand pages
The level of consumer engagement could be considered as a continuum ranging from
passively engaged (consuming) to highly engaged (creating), which can be explained in two
dimensions (Figure 3).
The first dimension (interactivity) explains the C2B and C2C relationship from low-level
interactions to high-level interactions. The second dimension describes the degree to which
the consumer is involved in the brand and the community (involvement).
The data indicates that, the more interactive the behaviour becomes, the more likely it is that
a consumer shows a degree of involvement, which, in turn, increases his/her engagement
with the brand and the community on the Facebook brand page. In other words, the amount
of cognitive, emotional and physical/behavioural resources that the consumers are prepared
to invest in the brand page is a clear indicator of their engagement level. For instance, highly
engaged consumers not only support or advocate the brand-related content passively, but also
participate actively in the process of idea generation, which can be classified into categories
including service-related, product-related and community-related idea generation.
KB: […] according to your website you have partnered with Feed America to assist in hunger relief
efforts and reduce food waste. This is very admirable and I applaud you for your efforts. However,
every time I visit my local Starbucks I witness the baristas empty the cooler full of goodies into the
Figure 3: The level of consumer engagement on a Facebook brand page

Findings
36
trash and it makes me sad […] I would be more than happy to pick up the uneaten treats at the end of
the night to bring to my church which serves breakfast to the community everyday.
Let me know.
[Extract from Starbucks Page]
BL: Very Awesome but why not put Alcatraz in and some others from BO2 than Nacht der Toten and
Moon.... Pretty boring zombie maps. Origins is so awesome.
[Extract from PlayStation Page]
These extracts form the Starbucks and PlayStation pages exemplify how consumers share
their ideas publicly with the community in the form of suggestions or recommendations.
While the first post was published on the Starbucks visitors page, the second one was a
comment on a PlayStation post with a trailer for the Call of Duty game. The degree to which
these two consumers involve themselves in the brand page or in the discussion exhibit not
only their devotion or love of the brand (i.e. emotional engagement), but also their strong
cognitive engagement in the form of complete attention to develop innovate ways to solve
brand-related problems. Hence, they contribute actively in the brand page to share their ideas
for public consumption within the community, which, in turn, provides an opportunity to
engage with others (i.e. behavioural engagement). These three dimensions of consumer
engagement – the emotional, cognitive and behavioural – will be further investigated later.
Thus, it is evident that consumers who are highly engaged with a community will be more
participative than others who are less engaged with it. Based on the analysis of the data, three
levels of consumer engagement can be identified, including consuming (passive consumption
of the page’s contents), contributing (participating in brand contents) and creating (generating
user content).
4.2.1. Consuming
Consuming behaviour represents a minimum level of consumer engagement in online brand
communities. It refers to participating without interactively contributing to or creating
content (Muntinga, Moorman and Smit, 2011; Tsai and Men, 2013). In other words, the
consumers are exposed to or exposing themselves to brand-related stimuli, yet they choose
not to respond to it. The consuming level of engagement was prominent in the data. The
analysis reveals that, although the two Facebook pages have millions of likes and followers,
only a small number of their followers participate actively and meaningfully with the brand

Findings
37
content and with other members. For instance, the Starbucks page has a fan base of 36
million likes, 35 million followers and 34 million visits, yet the percentage of participants
who interact with the page’s posts, consisting of pictures and videos (total 29 posts) against
the overall number of fans are approximately 2.5% for the pictures and 1.12% for the videos
(Figure 4).
Figure 4: The average number of reactions, shares, comments and views, by content type
Figure 4 presents the average number of contributions and creating activities (likes, shares
and comments), in addition to the number of consumption activities (video views), by content
type (videos and photos) from March 2016 to June 2017. The figure indicates that content
with photos led to average levels of reactions (42,794.5), shares (18,321) and comments
(1,663). Video contents obtained fewer reactions (36,968) but a higher number of shares
(11,541) and comments (1,851). Most importantly, video content obtained a significant
number of views on average (163,000), compared to the number of shares, comments and
reactions which explicitly indicated the consuming aspect of consumer behaviour on
Facebook.
This could also be illustrated by the following example: On 21st
October 2016, the Starbucks
video post “Watch your kitchen come alive with the new #Verismo V, the only machine that
lets you make both Starbucks coffee and espresso” obtained 5.6 million views (the highest
number of views from March 2016 to June 2017), yet the contribution activities were
relatively low (5,384 shares, 50,797 reactions and 3,076 comments).
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
Reactions Shares Comments Views
STARBUCKS
Pictures Videos

Findings
38
Along similar lines, the PlayStation page collected a fan base of 38 million likes and 37
million follows, yet the percentage of contribution activities with regard to the page’s posts,
including pictures post and videos posts (480 posts) within a time period of seven months
was approximately 1.8% for the photos and 2.9% for the videos (Figure 5).
Figure 5:The average number of reactions, shares, comments and views, by content type
Figure 5 illustrates the average number of contributions and creating activities (likes, shares,
comments), and consumption activities (video views), by content type (videos and photos),
over seven months. The figures show that the video content has a much higher number of
reactions (4,129.5), shares (1,293.3) and comments (630.5) than photo content, which yielded
2,113.9 reactions, 249.6 shares and 220.1 comments on average. A consistent pattern is that
video content always obtains a considerable number of views on average (290,537.8) in
comparison with the number of shares, reactions and comments.
The consumers’ behaviour in relation to consuming content on the Facebook brand page
could be further illustrated by the following example: On 19th
May 2017, the PlayStation
video post “PlayStation Live From E3 2017 Teaser Trailer” had 1.7 million views in under
two months (the highest number of views over the seven months), yet the amount of
engagement was relatively low: 12,000 reactions, 3,039 shares and 550 comments (see
Appendix 4). In short, the number of consumers who liked and followed the page and the
number of video views implies that a significant number of consumers use the community as
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
Reactions Shares comments Views
PlayStation
Pictures Videos

Findings
39
a source of information for the latest news and updates, yet they do not contribute or co-
create content within the community.
4.2.2. Contributing
The middle level of consumer engagement in online brand communities is contribution. It
represents both consumer-to-brand and consumer-to-consumer interactions. Although the
data shows that consuming brand-related content is the predominate behaviour amongst
Facebook brand page fans, there is a significant number of fans who interact with both the
brand and the other members. As noted above, the most common types of consumers
contributing behaviour are sharing and liking/reacting to the brand-related content or to other
members’ posts or comments.
Liking behaviour allows consumers to express their endorsements and support for the content
on the Facebook brand page, created either by brands or by other members. Liking a post is
different from liking a page. While the former denotes that the consumer engages
interactively with specific brand content (contributing), the latter implies that the page has the
opportunity to present its content to that consumer by becoming part of his/her news feed on
Facebook (consuming). Moreover, consumers can also express their feelings about certain
content by using the reactions mechanism, which was introduced recently on Facebook.
Consumers can express their love, pleasure, anger and sadness in reaction to a post, as well as
in reaction to other members’ comments. For instance, on 12th
August 2016, the Starbucks
post “A little tart. A lotta” generated the highest number of reactions amongst the 29 posts
collected (i.e. 113,000 consumers expressed their approval of the content through the “like”
button, while 3,300 selected the “love” option, 625 expressed their surprise about the content,
107 reacted via the “laugh” button, 41 expressed their anger and 13 expressed their sadness).
Table 3 provides more detail in relation to consumers’ contributing activities, including
shares and reactions.
In respect to the PlayStation page, take the 31st
January 2017 post as an example. It obtained
the highest number of reactions over seven months: 37,000 consumers chose the “like”
button, while 6,800 expressed their love, 44 showed their sadness, 39 laughed in reaction to
the post and, finally, five showed their anger (see Appendix 4 for more details in relation to
consumers’ contributing practices (i.e. share, likes/react) concerning the PlayStation page).

Findings
40
The second contributing behaviour is sharing behaviour, which means that the brand post will
appear on consumers’ profile pages. It implicitly indicates the consumers’ desire to share the
content with their Facebook friends. This practice was clearly present in the data for both
pages.
4.2.3. Creating
The ultimate level of online brand engagement is the practice of creating. This refers to
actively creating and posting brand-related content on the brand page which others consume,
and to which they can contribute (Muntinga, Moorman and Smit, 2011:Tsai and Men, 2013).
This behaviour goes beyond communicating the content created by the brand through sharing
and liking/reacting, and it actively exhibits the creating role of the users in the brand’s social
media website by commenting on brand-related content, replying to other members’
comments or publishing posts on the brand page. These creating activities were evident on
both brand pages (i.e. Starbucks and PlayStation). Consumers involved in both pages
engaged in interactive creation behaviour on the Facebook brand page by posting about their
brand knowledge or their consumption experience in the form of comments or posts. For
instance, on the Starbucks page, the data reveals that consumers actively write and publish
posts to the Starbucks page on a daily basis. They also tag the page on their timeline posts
and upload their personal pictures depicting themselves interacting with the brand. In other
words, they share their offline consumption experience with the community on the online
brand page.
Another type of creating behaviour, which was prominent in both pages, is commenting
behaviour, which aims to generate either positive or negative electronic word-of-mouth in the
community (eWOM). Consumers’ eWOM behaviour on the Facebook brand pages has been
found to be a significant component of consumer interaction with the brand and the
community. Specifically, they share their personal experience with the products (reliving
tension or excitement because of the use of the products) or with the company (complaining
about or praising customer services). They also, as mentioned above, reply to the other
members’ comments and posts on the brand page.

Findings
41
Furthermore, the analysis of the data shows that this interactive behaviour within the brand
community (i.e. creating activities) reflects all three engagement dimensions: cognitive,
emotional and behavioural. Firstly, cognitive engagement is captured in the form of sharing
information and experiences. Secondly, emotional engagement is identified by reflecting
consumers’ feelings, their sense of belonging to the community and the pleasure that results
from community involvement. It also indicates, in some cases, negative attitudes which are
directed towards certain engagement objects (i.e. the brand and/or other members). Finally,
the third engagement dimension, which is behavioural engagement, can be clearly viewed in
consumers’ social interactions with the brand and the community.
4.3. The dimensionality of consumer engagement
As discussed above, the analysis of consumer engagement on both Facebook pages confirms
the involvement of the three aspects of engagement: cognitive, emotional and behavioural
engagement. In other words, the proposed multi-dimensionality of the brand is clearly
reflected in the data. The consumers’ participation on the Facebook brand pages not only
validates the existing conceptual dimensionality of consumer engagement behaviour in
OBCs, but, most importantly, clarifies them within the context of social media, specifically in
relation to the Facebook brand pages. In addition, this allows the researcher to further explain
the presence of consumer multi-dimensionality engagement within the community.
4.3.1. The cognitive dimension
The cognitive dimension, which was identified as a set of mental brand-related activities
experienced by consumers in the form of attention and/or engrossment (Hollebeek, 2011),
was explicitly present in the data. Consumers interact with the brand-related posts as well as
with the other members in a deep and thoughtful manner. As mentioned earlier in this paper,
cognitive engagement can be captured through consumers’ contributing and creating
activities as they actively participate in the form of eWOM. The members of the both
Facebook pages exhibited a strong, value-laden relationship with the brand and the other
members, as they shared brand-related information, evaluating their personal experiences,
generating innovative ideas and expressing their opinions. These practices are illustrated on
both Facebook pages.

Consumer Engagement in online brand community

Consumer Engagement in online brand community

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