This literature review shows how definitions of communities have changed over time with the shift from traditional to modern day communities due to the global accessibility of the Internet. The Internet reduces barriers for interaction, provides a strong platform for social cohesion and can be used to create communities (Andersen, 2005; Wellman & Haythornwaite, 2002). As a result, communities are no longer defined by shared geographical space but instead can be defined through shared interests or shared consumption (McAlexander et al, 2002; Schouten & McAlexander, 1995). Online brand communities, with the brand at the heart of the community binding consumers together, enable communities to develop through shared consumption and admiration for a brand (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001). This evaluation of previous research into online
brand communities shows focus has primarily been on consumer durable products such as motorcycles, automotives, and computer brands. While previous research has proved valuable into furthering understanding of online brand communities, the focus on consumer durable products has been to the detriment of service or sports brands. Little is known about online brand communities from a service or sports brand perspective. There is opportunity to extend research on this topic by examining online brand communities for service or sports brands.
This literature review focuses on consumer-brand relationships. As online brand communities provide insight into consumer behaviour, research suggests understanding consumption practices and how community members make use of brands in various ways helps us to understand the relationship between media such as the Internet and consumption (Kozinets, 1997, 2001). The majority of research into consumption practices has focused on fans and fan cultures, such as baseball fans (Holt, 1995), X-Philes (Kozinets, 1997) and Star Trek fans (Kozinets, 2001, 2006). There are opportunities to extend research into consumption practices of online communities from fans of ‘pop culture’ to other areas such as fans of sport brands (Kozinets, 1997). Despite marketers often providing consumers with brand meanings and themes, consumers frequently dictate their own consumption practices (Kozinets, 2002b). Research suggests consumption practices are fluid and vary with different online interaction and therefore consumption practices could change in different online communities. Future research that can investigate consumption practices across different online brand communities may strongly contribute to literature on this topic. There is opportunity to investigate consumption practices between brand-sponsored and consumer-generated online brand communities.
Finally, this literature review shows existing research into online brand communities is based on presuming online brand communities are created and maintained by marketers or brand owners for commercial purposes and literature has focused on online brand communities from a brand- sponsored approach (Kozinets, 1997, 1999; Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001). This is despite research suggesting online communities have a number of benefits for consumers as well as marketers, and other researchers indicating huge growth in consumer-generated social networking communities (Hanson & Kalyanam, 2007). While some research has acknowledged the importance interaction and member types in online communities (Kozinets, 1999), research does not acknowledge how interaction or member types may be influenced by the presence of a brand owner in an online community. Research fails to consider the role of the consumer in creating an online brand community, despite research suggesting the role of the firm in creating and maintaining online brand communities is becoming increasingly unclear (Algesheimer et al, 2005). An examination of previous literature shows few or no studies demarcate between brand-sponsored and consumer-
generated online brand communities. Further research into online brand communities from a brand-sponsored versus consumer-generated approach is needed.
The objectives of this research have come from gaps identified in the literature. There is a noticeable absence of research into online brand communities generated by consumers and research into online brand communities fails to differentiate online brand communities generated by consumers from online brand communities created by marketers or brand owners. This gap in the literature may be attributed to researchers presuming online brand communities are generated and maintained by firms or brand managers for commercial purposes only (see for example Kozinets, 1999; Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001). To further understanding of online brand communities and extend literature on this topic, the first objective of this research is therefore:
1. To contribute to a greater understanding of online brand communities by examining differences between brand-sponsored and consumer-generated online brand communities.
A second gap in the literature reveals research into online brand communities has also primarily focused on online brand communities for consumer durable products such as automotives and computers (see for example Algesheimer et al, 2005; McAlexander et al, 2002; Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001; Schouten & McAlexander, 1995). Few studies exist on online brand communities for service or sports brands, despite researchers acknowledging the need for research into online brand communities expanding beyond consumer durable products (Andersen, 2005; McAlexander et al, 2002). To rectify the gap in the literature the second objective of this research is:
2. To extend research into online brand communities by examining online brand communities for service or sports brands.
To address these two gaps in the literature and achieve the research objectives, two research questions will be investigated. These are outlined below.
In order to investigate differences between online brand communities created by consumers and marketers or brand owners, it is essential to understand how community members participate in brand-sponsored and consumer-generated online brand communities, how members form relationships with the brand and the meanings and themes that unite consumers in brand- sponsored and consumer-generated online brand communities. The first research question is developed to further understanding of consumption practices across different online brand communities.
1. How do consumption practices differ between brand-sponsored and consumer-generated online brand communities?
To explore differences in consumption practices we can identify the themes and meanings that surround consumption groups (Kozinets, 1997, 2002a). Research shows meanings and themes are sub culturally mediated by interaction in an online community and this suggests meanings and themes may differ with different online interaction (Brown et al 2003; Kozinets, 1997, 2001). There is opportunity to extend research into consumption practices by identifying the themes and meanings that unite consumers in different types of online communities, such as online communities created by consumers compared with those created by marketers or brand owners. Furthermore, research into consumption practices in online brand communities has primarily focused on ‘pop culture’ communities (see for example Kozinets, 1997, 2001, 2006). We can therefore extend understanding of consumption practices in online brand communities by examining the meanings and themes uniting sports fans in an online brand community.
The second research question is developed to further understanding of differences in brand- sponsored versus consumer-generated online brand communities, by investigating marketing industry expert views of online brand communities.
2. How does the marketing industry view brand-sponsored versus consumer-generated online brand communities?
Investigating marketing industry experts’ views on consumer-generated and brand-sponsored online brand communities may aid in understanding how these online brand communities differ. Furthermore, hearing the perspective of marketers or brand managers in service organisations, sports teams and advertising agencies will contribute to understanding of online brand communities centred on service or sports brands.