The role of brand community identification, reward and consumer brand engagement on brand loyalty in virtual gaming brand communities among third-level students

Brand loyalty and consumer brand engagement have become increasingly important as people interact more and more on the interactive web. However, despite the growing importance of brand loyalty within virtual brand communities, insights into the driving factors, motivations and outcomes remain limited, as investigated in this research. The aim of this research is to bridge the gap and investigate which aspects of virtual gaming brand communities positively affect brand loyalty amongst third-level students. Therefore, this study proposed multiple factors that significantly influence brand loyalty (brand community identification, reward and consumer brand engagement). The author chose a quantitative approach for which a questionnaire was conducted with 102 third-level students who are active members of virtual gaming brand communities. The results reveal that all constructs: brand community identification, reward and consumer brand engagement have a significant positive effect on brand loyalty, with brand community identification bearing the strongest influence. Theoretically, the findings of this study provide further insights into brand loyalty in virtual gaming community-based dynamics. Fundamentally, the findings identify the critical role of organisations and marketing practitioners to nurture virtual consumer’s community identification and offer rewards to engage consumers and build long-term relationships. In summary, the findings of the study guide the brand owner to identify the resources that have a higher impact (brand community identification) and distribute the investments accordingly