The Journal of Business Science

Abstract

Aim: In order to
provide the better communication with their consumers, firms have given more importance to brand communities, especially
online brand communities. Successful firms use their brand communities to
establish long-term relationships with both existing and potential customers
thanks to relationship marketing approach. Relationship marketing provides a
better understanding of business and consumer interaction in consumer
engagement and brand relationships. Ensuring the participation of consumers in
brand communities has been becoming very important for businesses day to day.
Besides, in order to understand the market better, identifying the factors that
affecting consumer participation is becoming the strategic tool for firms. In
literature, many researchers handled the factors that affecting consumer
participation. However, there
is no study to examine the effect of self-congruence which is becoming more important
in the marketing literature on the consumers’ participation in online brand
communities.  The self-concept is defined
as how consumers actually see themselves and consumers tend to prefer the brand
that they see closely their self-concept. Self-congruence is the similarity between how consumer
sees himself and perceived of the image of the business. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of
self-congruence on consumer participation in online brand communities.

Method: For this purpose, quantitative research method was
selected and the data obtained from 283 participants by the convenient sampling
method. We used exploratory, confirmatory factor analyses and structural
equation model to test our model and hypotheses. In this research, online brand
communities and firms that have the Instagram page are discussed. We aimed to
collect data from 350 people. Research data were collected in December 2018 in
Ankara. The questionnaire was applied to the participants who followed the
pages of brands in Instagram and volunteered to complete the survey. A pre-test
was conducted with 15 people and the deficiencies in understanding the
questions are solved. In the questionnaire form, there are two main demographic
variables questions: gender and age. Likert-type scale was used to measure the
main structures. A total of 350 questionnaires were distributed and after some
controls, 283 useful questionnaires were analysed. Looking at the demographic
structure of the participants, 46% were female (131) and 54% were male (152).
The participants’ mean age was 28.32 years. The SPSS and LISREL software
programs were used for data analysis.

Findings: Approaches of
Hair et al. (2006) and Fornel and Larcker (1981) have been adopted as the
methods to be used in the evaluation of the research models and hypotheses. It
was noted that the variance ratio explained in the results of each explanatory
factor analysis for the structures was greater than 50% and the eigenvalue was
greater than 1. The calculated values indicated that the structures in the
research model were measured reliably. After the explanatory factor analysis,
within the framework of Fornel and Larcker's (1981) approach, confirmatory
factor analysis was applied in order to evaluate the convergent and
discriminant validity of all structures under the title of construct validity.
As a result of confirmatory factor analysis, goodness of fit values were as
follows: Chi-square: 129.86; DF: 44; Chi-square / DF: 2.95; RMSEA: 0.083;
Normed Fit Index (NFI): 0.97; Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI): 0.97; Comparative
Fit Index (CFI): 0.98; Incremental Fit Index (IFI): 0.98; Relative Fit Index
(RFI): 0.96; Goodness of Fit Index (GFI): 0.93; Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index
(AGFI): 0.87 and Standardized RMR: 0.028. It is seen that the goodness of fit
values are quite good. Correlation values, correlation squares, AVE and CR
values of the structures were calculated in order to evaluate the structures in
terms of validity of discrimination. Structural equation model analysis was
used to evaluate the research models and hypotheses. Goodness of fit values
obtained as a result of structural equation model are as follows: Chi-square:
144,39; DF: 49; Chi-square / DF: 2.94; RMSEA: 0.083; Normed Fit Index (NFI):
0.97; Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI): 0.97; Comparative Fit Index (CFI): 0.98;
Incremental Fit Index (IFI): 0.98; Relative Fit Index (RFI): 0.96; Goodness of
Fit Index (GFI): 0.92; Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI): 0.87 and
Standardized RMR: 0.049. According to structural equation model results,
self-congruence has a positive effect on participation for helping (β = 0.67, t
value = 10.62). Self-congruence also has an effect on the participation of
consumers due to the importance of brand (β = 0.73, t value = 11.94). Helping
has a positive effect on both the hedonistic (β = 0.46, t value = 6.91) and the
utilitarian (β = 0.53, t value = 8.94) participation of consumers. Finally, the
effect of brand passion on hedonistic participation was determined (β = 0.19, t
value = 2.93).

Results: According to
the findings of the research, self-congruence positively affects the consumers’
participation in online brand communities for helping. Self-congruence also has
an impact on participation in online brand communities as a result of
consumers' caring or loving the brand, which is expressed as brand passion. In
this point, firms should be aware of how they are seen on consumers’ eyes and
how it is importance of this fit on their marketing strategies. The effect of
receiving helping on both hedonistic and utilitarian participation is also seen
in the analysis results. Brand passion also affects participation for
entertainment purposes. In short, self-congruence positively affects participation
in brand communities both for helping and brand passion. This study has two
main contributions for the marketing literature. Firstly, Baldus et al., (2015)
stated that all the factors of consumers’ participation in online brand
community in their study cannot be handled together and there are cause-effect
relations among themselves. In short, there are two main reasons why consumers
participate in online brand communities: getting help and brand passion.
Hedonic and utilitarian participation comes later as a secondary effect. The
second contribution is to reveal the effect of self-congruence on consumer
participation in brand communities. Self-congruence and consumer engagement are
seen as a valuable predictor of future business performance, both providing and
maintaining a competitive advantage. In future studies, it will be beneficial
to handle customer participation from a different point of view in terms of
consumer behaviour. Especially, examining the socio-psychological factors of
consumers as well as self-congruence may contribute.