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Conceptual Approach to Community, Virtual Community and Online Brand Community

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Online Brand Communities

Part of the book series: Progress in IS ((PROIS))

Abstract

Human beings, due to their unique characteristics as a species, need relationships with other individuals. This explains the interactions between people and the tendency to live in groups. All human beings belong to one or more communities, although this happens involuntarily. By simply having a family or residing in a city, one belongs to these communities. In other cases, the individual chooses which community he belongs to, seeking groups of people with values or styles similar to his own. Among these communities, we count brand communities, which revolve around one or more brands.

The birth of the Internet and its evolution through ever-more-social versions has allowed people to find virtual communities into which, despite physical distance, they can integrate and adapt. Furthermore, online communities can facilitate maintaining and strengthening relationships with offline communities. In this context, communities that revolve around brands are strengthened by the emergence of online brand communities.

This chapter defines community and identifies its primary characteristics. Later, we delve deeper into the main characteristics of virtual communities, as well as brand communities, both online and offline. Finally, these types of communities are compared.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    2 Rheingold (1993) introduced the idea of virtual communities in his discussion about their activities with “WELL,” a pioneer computerized conference system that allowed people from all over the planet to participate in public conversations and exchange e-mails (Dwyer, 2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Business Administration, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Francisco J. Martínez-López

  2. Marketing Group, Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain

    Francisco J. Martínez-López

  3. Dept. Economics & Business Administration, University of Malaga, Malaga, Spain

    Rafael Anaya-Sánchez, Rocio Aguilar-Illescas & Sebastián Molinillo

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  1. Francisco J. Martínez-López
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Martínez-López, F.J., Anaya-Sánchez, R., Aguilar-Illescas, R., Molinillo, S. (2016). Conceptual Approach to Community, Virtual Community and Online Brand Community. In: Online Brand Communities. Progress in IS. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24826-4_7

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