Brand engagement and identification in virtual brand community: The moderating role of brand community subscription seniority

Although brand identification and brand engagement are key research priorities, empirically led insight into these concepts and their links remains tenuous. We thereby explore the effect of brand community identification on brand engagement, which subsequently affects word-of-mouth and brand attachment in virtual brand community (VBC) context. We also examine brand community subscription seniority to moderate the link between engagement and word-of-mouth thus further contributing to identification/engagement-literature. To explore these issues, we gathered data from 394 online brand communities' respondents (music festival) in Tunisia. Applying structural equation method, we uncover that brand quality relationship and brand identification affects engagement. Further, engagement significantly affects brand attachment, but its influence on word-of-mouth remains minimal. The findings also indicate that brand community subscription seniority moderates the brand engagement/word-of-mouth relationship. We put forward some managerial practices to promote brand community identification/engagement thus adopting branding strategies/tactics, which stimulate value sharing, co-creation and brand attachment in virtual brand community context. Copyright © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.