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| How Do Relationships between Members in Brand Communities Promote Brand Loyalty——Based on an Integrated Perspective of Strong Ties and Weak Ties |
| ZHOU Zhi min,ZHENG Ya qin,ZHANG Lei |
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Abstract From the integrated perspective of strong ties and weak ties, this research explores the intermediate mechanism on how strong ties and weak ties between members in online brand communities promote brand loyalty. Based on social resources theory and brand community theory, some hypotheses are built and tested by the empirical study using partial least square (PLS). The results show that: the number of weak ties does not foster brand community informational value and community social value; the number of strong ties promotes both values directly; community informational value and community social value increase affective community commitment, continuance community commitment and normative community commitment; only the first two types of community commitment can foster brand loyalty. The findings contribute to the brand community literature from the perspective of tie strength, and provide implications for brand community management.
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Received: 06 December 2012
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Corresponding Authors:
ZHOU Zhi min
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2013, Vol. 1 
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