The effect of perceived benefit, consumer brand engagement and community leader's role on purchase intention in virtual brand communities: Example of 'Playstation Türkiye Platformu'

Consumer groups that gather with common values under the same roof of a brand form brand communities. It has been observed that these meetings take place through virtual brand communities due to the development of internet technologies and the spread of social media platforms. Community members who share a common interest are involved in brand communities interacting with other members. Community members are also in a cognitive, emotional, and behavioural engagement with the brand. Virtual brand communities have become a suitable platform for this approach, which is called consumer brand engagement and has started to take place more frequently in the marketing literature in recent years. A survey was conducted with the members of the "PlayStation Türkiye Platformu", a Facebook community, to reveal the effect of consumer brand engagement on purchase intention. A qualitative application was included in the study by interviewing with the leader in the virtual brand community where the research was conducted. According to the results, it has been revealed that there is a significant relationship between economic benefit and information benefit in the community and consumer brand engagement. Besides, it was concluded that leadership in the virtual brand community has a moderator role between consumer brand interaction and purchase intention. In this sense, this research was expected to contribute significantly to the literature.