Psychological Researches in Management

Psychological Researches in Management

Investigating the effect of the characteristics online brand community on brand ‎loyalty through the fans’ engagement: case of of Persepolis Club fans

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mohsen Akbari 1
parviz Ahmadi 2
mohadese momeni 3
mohammad hataminezhad 4
1 ‎1.‎ Associate Professor, Literature and Humanities, University of Guilan, ‎Rasht, Iran‎
2 Associate Professor, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tarbiat Modares University
3 Master of International Business, North Strategy Non-Profit University
4 PhD student in Business Policy, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Guilan
Abstract
Today, the concept of a brand online community is tied to social media. Social media is an ideal environment for creating brand communities. The online brand community, using these emerging media, enables virtual interaction of fans and engagement, which will also have a significant impact on building brand loyalty. In terms of the purpose of the research is descriptive, in terms of research strategies, descriptive-analytical and correlational and in terms of data collection methods is a questionnaire. The present study was conducted among the users of the social network of Persepolis Sports Club. A total of 411 people participated in this study with the available techniques and the standard questionnaire was provided to them after confirmation of validity and reliability and after completion, for statistical analysis, LISREL software 8.58 and SPSS 20 were used The results show that the four characteristics of the online community of the brand "system quality, information quality, virtual interaction and reward" have a positive effect on people's engagement. Mediator variable analysis showed; The characteristics of the online brand community affect the brand loyalty through engagement. The managers of Persepolis Sports Club should increase the engagement of their fans by promoting the characteristics of the online brand community and create dialogue and bargaining in their online brand communities. In this way, it can make fans loyal to its brand.
Keywords
Brand loyalty
fans’ engagement
online brand community
characteristics of online brand community

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