Company versus consumer performance: does brand community identification foster brand loyalty and the consumer's personal brand?

This study investigates the effect of community identification in building brand loyalty (attitudinal and behavioural) and a personal brand via social networks. The proposed model explained the main community identification antecedents and how identification can lead to enhanced company and consumer performance. This study adopts the theoretical lens of uses and gratifications theory and identifies three motivational drivers of community identification: relationship-oriented motives, self-oriented motives and brand content-oriented motives. The data were analysed with a structural equation modelling method based on a convenience sample collected through a survey. This study extends the body of knowledge about the outcomes from an active social media usage, based on a UGT perspective. It relates community identification and its drivers to loyalty. Besides, it links community identification with personal branding, which is considered as a vital outcome expected by social media users. The findings suggested that self-oriented motives represented a key driver for taking part in an online community. In addition, community identification represents to be an important antecedent to build attitudinal loyalty rather than behavioural loyalty. Consequently, community identification was also found to be a significant driver for building a user's personal brand.