Brand Value Co-creation In Online Game Virtual Communities:an Empirical Research From The Perspective Of Social Network

With the rapid development of Internet technology,the growth of the online game market has also shown a rapid momentum.However,with the disappearance of the demographic dividend,the competition in game market used to be won by volume is gradually transitioning to quality.Content innovation,refined operation,and in-depth user value have become the top priorities.However,the brand value of online game as a virtual community has received little attention from the scholars.From the perspective of social networks,this paper studies the path of co-creation of brand value in the virtual communities of online games,and provides theoretical support for game brand management practices.First,based on the analysis of the actual and theoretical background,as well as the conceptual definition and literature review of social network theory,sense of community,value co-creation theory,and brand equity theory,this paper proposes an environment-(conscious)-behavior-result-based research model for the brand value co-creation of online game virtual communities.Secondly,through the research design,the relationship between social network environment,sense of community,value co-creation behavior,and brand equity was analyzed.Then the variables were defined,dimensioned,and scaled.Finally,the hypotheses of the model are tested through empirical analysis,and several suggestions are provided for the management of the game brand based on the research results.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)The social network environment of online game virtual community can be divided into three dimensions: network centrality,relationship strength,and perceived similarity,and these dimensions all have a significant positive impact on co-creation behavior of the players;(2)Sense of community plays a mediating role in the relationship between social network environment and value cocreation behavior;(3)The value-creation behavior of players has a significant positive effect on brand awareness,perceived quality,brand loyalty,and brand association in all dimensions of brand equity.In summary,there is a good degree of fit between the research model and the empirical data of this study.