A Model of Factors Affecting Participation in Virtual Brand Communities

Fundamental changes occurred in the society and economy since the nineteenth century has clearly reflected in the development of our communities. Consumption communities which had not been previously existed came to the existence by the development of mass media especially Web 2. 0 and modern marketing. As a result; people are increasingly taking their identity tied to their brands. On the other hand، the market in the twenty-first century is dominated by advanced communication technology and e-commerce and hence، virtual brand communities are rapidly expanding. With regards to the above، in this study factors affecting participation in such communities are identified. The research method used is survey and the population consisted of those customers who are the members of virtual communities. Data were collected from 408 members of these communities. In order to test the hypotheses related to the components of the model، confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used. The study findings suggest that four factors that is: factors related to the brand، social factors، factors related to the product، and functional factors are affecting participation in virtual brand communities.