Virtual Brand Community Trust And Its Effect On Brand Loyalty

With the rapid development of the information technology, internet-based virtual brand communities flourish, causing widespread concern in academia and industry. The present study, from the customer's perspective, empirically proposes that an extended structure of virtual brand community trust base on advance the literature, and tests the effects of virtual brand community trust dimensions on brand loyalty. The results from testing the virtual brand community trust structure provide evidence that the structure of virtual brand community trust makes up three dimensions:system trust, institutional trust and interpersonal trust. And, the factors composing system trust include reliability and convenience; the factors composing institutional trust include monitoring and privacy. Interpersonal trust is composed of honesty, benevolence and competence. The findings from testing the research model support the casual linkages between virtual brand community trust and brand loyalty proposed in the study. Moreover several interesting results are found. System trust and interpersonal trust are found to have effects on community commitment. The influences of institutional trust on community commitment are not found to have statistical significance. Empirical proved virtual brand community trust is a multi-dimensional structure. It scientifically reveals the core of trust in virtual brand community content and methods of measurement. It also provides a scientific basis for understanding trust in virtual brand communities. The enterprises can grasp and measure virtual brand communities trust by the structure. Moreover, empirical proved the casual linkages between virtual brand community trust and brand loyalty proposed in the study, which reveals the development process of community commitment building brand loyalty.