Brand engagement without brand ownership: a case of non-brand owner community members
| Pages | 216-230 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-04-2018-1840 |
| Date | 11 March 2019 |
| Published date | 11 March 2019 |
| Author | Jitender Kumar,Jogendra Kumar Nayak |
| Subject Matter | Marketing,Product management,Brand management/equity |
Brand engagement without brand ownership: a
case of non-brand owner community members
Jitender Kumar
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India, and
Jogendra Kumar Nayak
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India
Abstract
Purpose –Considering brand ownership as a cause of concern, this paper aims to propose a conceptual model portraying bra nd engagement as a
function of members’brand psychological ownership (BPO) and value-congruity and to investigate the effect of brand engagement on brand
attachment and brand purchase intentions.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected from 275 brand community members who do not own the brand. Six different brand
communities were shortlisted and offline events were targeted. For testing the hypothesised relationships, the authors used structural equation
modelling.
Findings –The results indicate that BPO and value-congruity positively influence the brand engagement of the member s, which further influences
the brand attachment and brand purchase intentions. It is also observed that brand attachment mediates the effect of brand engagement on brand
purchase intentions.
Research limitations/implications –The primary limitation of this paper is the research context, which needs to be further replicated. The specific
customer-segment approach of the study adds a new direction to the scope of brand engagement in the brand management domain.
Practical implications –The study shows that brand managers need to expand their focus from existing brand customers to non-customers as
brand engagement subjects because the non-brand owners can also experience brand attachment and develop intentions to purchase the brand, if
engaged.
Originality/value –The study endorses the role of psychological ownership theory in brand engagement research; explores the feasibility of brand
engagement among “non-owner community members”; highlights the role of their engagement in enhancing attachment towards the brands and
purchase intentions; and sheds light on the blurred boundaries between brand engagement and brand attachment.
Keywords Brand engagement, Brand communities, Value congruity, Brand attachment, Brand psychological ownership, Brand purchase intentions
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The contemporary marketing practice has expanded its focus
from traditional relationship marketing to engagement
marketing by putting emphasis on the role of customers as
brand marketers and by looking beyond the traditional
transactional perspectivebased on purchases and consumption
(Harmeling et al.,2017;Palmatier et al.,2018). Customer
brand engagement (CBE) is the central concept of this new
paradigm that is embedded in the promotion and propagation
of customer-brand relationships beyond transactions (Van
Doorn et al., 2010;Hollebeek et al.,2014;Kumar and Nayak,
2018). CBE is termed as the new brand relationship variable
(Gambetti and Graffigna, 2010;Dwivedi, 2015;France et al.,
2016;Harrigan et al.,2018) which involves the volunteer
investment of customer resources (time, money and energy)
beyond transactions and exhibition of behaviours, such as
creating and joining brand clubs, defending brand image and
voluntary support for others in brand-related issues and
problems (Keller, 2001;Van Doorn et al., 2010). CBE is
specifically described as the customers’cognitive, emotional
and behavioural activity in specific brand interactions
(Hollebeek et al., 2014). A suitable platform for customer-
brand interactions is necessary for brand engagement (Brodie
et al., 2011) and brand communities provide a perfect setting
for customer-brand interactions (McAlexander et al., 2002). A
brand community involves a compatible group of brand
customers (Veloutsou, 2009) who commonly admire a brand
and this commonality factor drives them to interact, socialise
and sympathise with each other. Brand engagement does not
require the ownership of the brand and engagementbehaviours
can be witnessed in the absence of personal ownership of the
object (brand) as well (Vivek et al., 2012;Jaakkola and
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
28/2 (2019) 216–230
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-04-2018-1840]
This study was funded by the University Grant Commission (Ministry of
Human Resource Development) of India.
Received 4 April 2018
Revised 23 July 2018
28 September 2018
2 October 2018
12 October 2018
Accepted 12 October 2018
216
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