Brand posts and brand co-creation in higher education communities: a social communication process theory

Creating brand posts that stimulate customer interaction in online communities is both vital and challenging to marketing managers. Using social communication process theoretical framework (i.e. SMCR), the current study examines the impact of brand posts in online brand communities on students' responses in ways that potentially co-create value for universities and illustrate the moderating role of community types. Results show that source credibility and argument quality of online posts are positively associated with both cognitive and affective response, thus motivating brand co-creation activities, while information quantity has insignificant effect on affective response. Additionally, members of communities managed by different parties (student-created vs university-created communities) exhibit a different tendency to develop community and contribute to brand value. Thus, different digital strategies depending on the type of community host are suggested to capture the highest possible co-creation value from these communities.