Does brand community participation lead to early new product adoption? The roles of networking behavior and prior purchase experience.

Introduction: Consumers' adoption behavior is critical to the success of new products, but the effects of brand communities on new product adoption have rarely been investigated. In this study, we draw on network theory to examine how consumer participation in brand communities (in terms of participation intensity and social networking behaviors) affects the adoption of new products. Methods: We collected longitudinal data from 8,296 members of an online community of a well-known smartphone brand to assess the factors influencing new product adoption. Results: The results from applying a hazard model indicated that brand community participation increases the speed of adoption of new products. The positive effect of members' out-degree centrality on new product adoption was found to be significant, but in-degree centrality only had an effect when users had previous purchasing experience. Discussion: These findings extend the literature by revealing how new products are disseminated across brand communities. The study also makes theoretical and practical contributions to the literature on brand community management and product marketing.

Antecedents of Viewers' Live Streaming Watching: A Perspective of Social Presence Theory.

Live streaming commerce as a popular marketing method has attracted wide attention, but little is known about why consumers continue to watch live streaming. To fill this research gap, this study draws on social presence theory to examine the impact of sense of community, emotional support, and interactivity on viewers' social presence, which, in turn, influences their live streaming watching. Furthermore, the moderating role of streamer attractiveness is also investigated. The authors collected survey data from 386 live streaming viewers and used the structural equation model to test the research model. The results reveal that sense of community, interactivity, and emotional support positively affects viewers' social presence, leading to viewers' watching live streaming. Furthermore, streamer attractiveness plays a significant moderating role between social presence and live streaming watching. This study provides a unified theoretical framework to explain the intention to watch live streaming based on social presence theory.

Understanding the consumers' multi-competing brand community engagement: A mix method approach.

Introduction: Participating in multiple competing brand communities simultaneously is common for consumers, which brings challenges for companies to manage brand communities and build strong brand-consumer relationships. Although previous studies have widely examined the drivers and outcomes of consumers' engagement in an individual community, little is known about the multi-competing brand community engagement. Methods: This paper explores the manifestation, categories, motivational drivers, and consequences of consumers' MBCE through two studies using two different methodologies to fill this gap. Results: By using netnography, study 1 shows that MBCE behaviors manifest in various ways, and can be classified into three categories: information-oriented MBCE, social-oriented MBCE, and oppositional MBCE. Study 2 indicates through a consumer survey that one reason that motivates consumers to participate in other competing brand communities is because of the attractiveness of other competing brands. Also, the results indicate that consumers' product knowledge is positively associated with MBCE. Finally, the number of competing brand community engagements is positively related to brand switching intention. Discussion: This article enriches the brand community literature and provides important implications on managing brand communities in a competing environment.

Social Exclusion and Green Consumption: A Costly Signaling Approach.

This article is dedicated to examine the impact of social exclusion (i.e., being rejected, isolated, excluded or ignored by other individuals or groups in society) on consumers' intention of green consumption. Based on Costly Signaling Theory, three experiments have been conducted to explore one main effect and the corresponding mechanism together with two boundary conditions. Specifically, the first study tests the main effect and internal mechanism by manipulating the state of social exclusion. The results show that social exclusion enhances consumers' intention to buy green products and consumers' desire for self-sacrifice mediates that relationship. Study 2 manipulates audience state to examine the first boundary condition. The findings show that the effect of social exclusion on green consumption exists only in public purchasing scenarios. Study 3 tests the second boundary condition by manipulating the stability of exclusion causes. The results indicate that the main effect is significant only when causes of exclusion are not stable. The final part discusses theoretical contributions and practical implications of this study in the field of both social exclusion and green consumption.