بررسی توسعه وفاداری برند در جوامع برند از دید روانشناسی مثبت Investigating the development of brand loyalty in brand communities from a positive psychology perspective

1. Introduction In recent years, marketers have been using brand communities (e.g., Jeep, Apple, HTC smartphones) to build brands (McWilliam, 2000). A brand community can be defined as a “…group of consumers with a shared enthusiasm for the brand and a well-developed social identity, whose members engage jointly in group actions to accomplish collective goals and/or express mutual sentiments and commitments” (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006, p. 45). It provides consumers with a variety of information pieces, such as products, user experience and competition between companies. It can also be used to enhance brand loyalty and commitment (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001). While prior research identified the important impact brand communities have on product marketing and brand equity (Laroche, Habibi, Richard, & Sankaranarayanan, 2012; Zaglia, 2013), few managers understand how to achieve these benefits (Fournier & Lee, 2009). There is much left to explore about the mechanism underlying the influence of brand communities on consumer behavior and branding. Therefore, our research attempts to achieve this end. Brand community research has started to identify the importance of consumers’ psychological processes in regard to developing successful brand communities (e.g., Carlson, Suter, & Brown, 2008; Schouten, McAlexander, & Koenig, 2007). Researchers have shown that positive feelings from participating brand community activities can be transferred to the brand (McAlexander & Schouten, 1998). Some researchers further argued that consumer experience should be the center of a brand community (rather than the brand), and unfolded the relationships within a brand community (McAlexander, Kim, & Roberts, 2003; McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig, 2002; Muniz & Schau, 2005). According to the flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997) in positive psychology, an individual experiences a feeling of full engagement, fun and enjoyment when performing an activity. Such positive consumer experiences lead to positive affect and satisfaction.