Developing a Behavior Model for Utilitarian Service Consumers toward Engagement in Online Brand Communities

The present study aims to explain the behavioral pattern of utility service consumers toward engagement in online brand communities. Many companies seek to attract and communicate more with customers; therefore, they try to strengthen their relationships with customers by creating online brand communities and customer engagement. Utility companies are affected by this trend in recent years while, compared to hedging companies, they face more challenges in this area. In the extant literature, few studies have investigated the types of behavioral responses of utilitarian service consumers in online brand communities. Therefore, this study seeks to develop a behavioral model for utility service consumers to ensure their engagement. It divides the consumers based on their behavioral differences and by examining each category of them separately in an independent phase.
 
The required data for this study were collected through purposive sampling, dealing with two groups of consumers with different behavioral responses to engagement in online brand communities. The study continued through conducting semi-structured interviews and using the content analysis method. In its first phase, participants were consumers of one of the three Internet service providers in Iran (namely Shuttle, Hi Web, and Mobinnet) who had to connect with the online brand communities but did not desire to engage. Data were collected from 12 consumers. In the second phase of the study, participants were consumers from one of the same three Internet service providers (i.e., Shuttle, Hi Web, and Mobinnet) that had connected and engaged in the online brand communities of one of the mentioned companies. Data were collected from 10 of these individuals. Next, the data obtained from the two phases were coded by the thematic analysis approach. Eventually, the final model of consumer engagement in online brand communities was extracted.
 
Dimensions and components of consumer engagement in online brand communities include brand-related factors (i.e., brand position in the consumer's mind and brand satisfaction), individual factors (i.e., possibility of presenting the ideal self, consumer attitude towards people with a high level of engagement, perceived usefulness of the engagement, consumer involvement with the product, consumer motivation from the occurrence of engagement and consumer openness), social factors (i.e., quality of community members' interactions with each other and content source), and factors related to the online brand community (i.e., the extent to which consumer expectations from communities are met, community commitment to interactions with consumer and the attractiveness of the content).
 
The research results underlined the role of the mentioned components in consumers of utilitarian service toward engagement in online brand communities. The dimensions and components identified were expressed in a final figure. The six components of brand position in the consumer's mind, brand satisfaction, consumer involvement with the product, perceived usefulness, community commitment to interactions with consumers, and attractiveness of the content were repeated in the findings of two phases, highlighting the relative importance of these factors compared to other factors. Therefore, brand managers should pay special attention to these components. These findings help managers better understand consumers’ behavior and design or refine their communication strategies accordingly.