Factors influencing quality of life, a study of brand communities in viet nam

This research investigates the impact of value co-creation practices in online brand community on quality of life by the mediating of brand relationship quality and consumer hope.. The r

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-LE THI MUI

FACTORS INFLUENCING QUALITY

OF LIFE: A STUDY OF BRAND COMMUNITIES IN VIET NAM

MASTER OF BUSINESS (HONOURS)

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-LE THI MUI

FACTORS INFLUENCING QUALITY

OF LIFE: A STUDY OF BRAND COMMUNITIES IN VIET NAM

MASTER OF BUSINESS (HONOURS)

SUPERVISOR: Assoc Prof Nguyen Thi Mai Trang

LIST OF CONTENTS

List of tables 2

List of figures 3

Introduction 4

Literature review 8

Brand community 8

Value co-creation practices and brand relationship quality 8

Brand relationship quality and consumer hope 12

Consumer hope and quality of life 14

Methodology 16

Design and Sample 16

Measurement 18

Data analysis and results 18

Testing the measurement model 18

Testing the hypothesis model 24

Discuss and implications 25

Limitations and direction for future research 29

Conclusion 30

Appendix 31

References 52

List of tables

Table 1: The profile of respondents in the study

Table 2: Cronbach’s Alpha for all constructs

Table 3: Pattern Matrix in EFA analysis

Table 4: Standardized CFA loadings of items

Table 5: Correlations of items

Table 6: Regression Weights in SEM analysis

Table 7: A again qualitative survey report

List of figures

Figure 1: Proposed research Model

This research investigates the impact of value co-creation practices in online brand community on quality of life by the mediating of brand relationship quality and consumer hope The research was designed for the sample size about 250

respondents in online brand communities such as Apple brand community for Iphonefans, Channel brand community for perfume fans, 38 Degree flowers brand

community for flower fans and SamSung brand community for the fans of Galaxy lines The results indicate that it can be said that the existence of relationship betweentwo elements of value co-creation practices in online brand community including impression management, brand use and brand relationship quality as well as the presence of the relationship in series from brand relationship quality to consumer hope and then quality of life Finally, some implications are discussed to gain point

of view objectively about research results

The fourth industrial revolution has had a dramatically booming stage

in recent years and seems breaking most of traditional industries in every country because the fact that the remarkable number of global online retail sales was to increase from US$236 billion to US$521

billion over five years, from 2007 to 2012, was estimated to reach

$1248.7 billion in 2017 (Verma et al., 2016) Consumer have had

awareness of benefits of this channel such as great price and flexible time by the significantincrease in e-commerce platforms global

(Denegri‐Knott, 2006; Nedergaard & Gyrd-Jones, 2013) The fact that it has changed significant marketing industry, leading to a creatively online marketing stage thanks to the unique aspect of social media and its huge spread for revolutionizing marketing process (Hanna, Rohm, &Crittenden, 2011) and consumer behavior from absorbing information for making purchase online (Mangold & Faulds, 2009;

Powers, Advincula, Austin, & Graiko, 2012) Otherwise, compared with

the online ones, the other benefits of social media based brand

communities are the lower cost of initiating these communities, higher reward, and the number of greater reach because of normally using free the platforms (LaPointe,2012) Accordingly, the rapidly

popularizing of social networking technologies has generated ideal

existing members and attract new customers for brand community (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Silvestre, 2011).

5

Specifically, the concept of brand community is taken into as one of main

considerations in marketing field recently (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001) When

researchers study initial about brand communities, online brand communities are deemed as tools in order to build relationships between consumers and brands thanks

to corresponding internet condition (Schultz& Bailey, 2000) The brands and

consumers are provided many values such as sharing knowledge and engaging

supportive consumers by brand communities (Andersen, 2005), making strong

impression to customers on the brand features and stimulating their loyalty (Andersen,2005; McAlexander et al., 2002), gaining valuable market data for development and research (Von Hippel, 2005), and co-creating benefits with consumers (Schau, Muñiz,

& Arnould, 2009) Moreover, the brand community on social media help new

customers stimulate purchase intention by joining and participating in brand clubs and associates (Algesheimer et al., 2005; McAlexander & Schouten, 1998) In conclusion, it may be argued that brand community helps value co-creation practices to be more

convenient and efficient

Customer- brand relationship that customers can create an active relationship with brand is like building relationship with friends, which means brands are considered ascustomer’s partners (Hudson et al., 2015) A study of individual relationships in social psychology as well as personality presents the metaphor of brand relationship (Breivik & Thorbjornsen, 2008; Smit et al., 2007) Customers participate in brand relationships because of benefits from the meanings they gain into their life, not only possessing well good brand with its function and utilitarianism but also more

psychological and emotional (Fournier, 1998) Thus, it possibly be claimed that brandrelationship quality interrelated obviously to brand community.

Although many previous researches point out that value co-creation practices have an important influence on enhancing brand loyal (McAlexander et al., 2002; Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001; Muniz & Schau, 2005; Habibi, Laroche, & Richard 2016), and

demonstrate how value co-creation practices influence brand relationships quality in brand communities (Luo et al, 2015) However, individual quality of life concept have not been mentioned while the previous studies present value co-creation practices in brand community concept, moreover, those have not demonstrated the influence of value co-creation practices on quality of life with the mediating of consumer hope

Therefore, it may be extremely virtual to address the gap recognizing the worth of consumer hope for mediating role because of providing insights into customer’s perceptions as well as feeling in an online brand communities context (Raggio, Walz, Godbole, & Folse, 2014) The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of value co-creation practices in online brand community on quality of life by the mediating ofconsumer hope and then it is suggested suitable recommendations The paper is organized with the next section is literature review based on foundation of previous research models tested in the research and followed by the right methodology, next sections, the data analysis and results, and discussion and implications will be

indicated Finally, the paper rounds off with limitation and direction for future

member in community (Kuo & Feng, 2013).

Value co-creation practices and brand relationship quality

The co-creation of member benefits and community potential by variety activities within a brand community is considered as value co-creation practices while members

in brand community create worthy thing for the brand or others in the community (Schau et al., 2009) Furthermore, value co-creation practices is supported favorably

to implement by the platform of social network and make members and other

elements of a brand community obtain a high-context interaction, leading to reinforce

the brand relationship quality brand community (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001) Moreover, the progressive of value co-creation combination including series of particular

elements, such as “welcoming, empathizing, milestoning, documenting, evangelizing, justifying, customizing, commoditizing and so on”, these are mainly led by four

elements: “social networking, community engagement, impression management and brand use” (Schau et al., 2009) Thus, another research also demonstrates value co-creation practices has a positively influence on brand relationship quality (Habibi, Laroche, Richard, 2016)

Social networking

Social networking including such practices as “welcoming, empathizing, and

governing” pertains to “creating, maintaining, and cementing ties” among brand community members” (Schau et al., 2009) In addition, according to social capital theory, the social networks and trustworthy relationships, and enhance the

togetherness will be established and strengthened propitiously by frequent

interpersonal interactions (Chang & Chuang, 2011; Lee, Kim, & Kim, 2012; Lee, Xiong, & Hu, 2012), influence positively to the identification with the brand

(Algesheimer et al., 2005) For instance, other authors (Habibi et al.,2014) indicate many cases welcoming a new member in communities on Facebook, or “like” and

“comment” their stories, and make direct conversations or make friend relationships

on social media, resulting in that the more committed the member is about the

rituals of the community, the more they would like to be involved in value

co-H1: Social networking in brand community related positively to brand

relationship quality.

Community engagement

According to the brand community theory (McAlexander et al., 2002; Schau et al., 2009) community engagement is identified as regular activities including

“documenting, badging, milestoning and staking” that consumers share their

important milestone and evolve cohesive personal brand narratives, related to enhancemembers' engagement in the community Furthermore, members collaboratively buildsocial capital, for instance, concentrating on a specific thing of shared interest with individuals or sharing unique experiences they gained about using the brand (Schau etal., 2009) Otherwise, consumer’s experiences and knowledge in online brand

community are improved significant brand community by sharing photos, videos, andtext-based stories in their brand usage (Habibi et al., 2014; Zaglia, 2013) Therefore, brand relationship quality will be stimulated by these reinforce members’ regular engagement with the brand community So another hypothesis is presented:

H2: Social networking in brand community related positively to brand

relationship quality.

Impression management

Next another element of value co-creation practices is impression management

including evangelizing and justifying (Schau et al., 2009) Previous researchers

presents the effort to create a favorable impression on outside of community brand

through conducting impression management practices of the brand community

members, they are ‘‘activities that have an external, outward focus on creating

desirable impressions of the brand, brand enthusiasts and brand community in the social university beyond the brand community’’(Schau et al., 2009) In addition, otherresearch proves impression management is implemented in different ways, share helpful items about the brand to be feel a strong sense of connectedness, obligations

to society as well as commitment to the rituals, and obtain participation in impression management (Habibi et al., 2014) Since members define this community as part of their self-identity (Algesheimer et al., 2005), it is every member’s duty to maintain and increase a favorable image of the community among others, leading to affect positively on brand relationship quality Thus, another hypothesis is proposed that:

H3: Impression management in brand community related positively to brand

relationship quality.

Brand use

The last elements of value co-creation practices is brand use “including customizing, grooming and commoditizing” that the activities that help individuals in brand

communities using effective brand, and enhance others members use brand, related to

“the member’s tendency to help other members with newer, improved and enhanced ways to use the focal brand” (Schau et al., 2009) Furthermore, researchers determinethat interpersonal ties in a group are enhanced and the willingness to share

information and resources with other members is increased by shared consciousness,

to provide assistant and to commit to goals identified by the group (Walther, 1996;

Wellman, 1999) There is therefore significant increase in brand relationship

quality in online brand community

H4: Brand use in brand community related positively to brand relationship quality.

Brand relationship quality and consumer hope

Brand relationship quality

“Brand relationship quality is defined as a customer-based indicator of the strength and depth of the person-brand relationship” (Smit, Bronner, & Tolboom, 2007), and consumer personality characteristic is projected onto the brands when describing them(Phau and Lau, 2001) Otherwise, brand relationship quality is considered as “the degree to which the consumer views the brand as a satisfactory partner in an ongoing relationship” (Algesheimer et al., 2005, p.23) A research indicates that there is

existence of brand-customer relationship since the metaphor of brand relationship is originated from interpersonal relationship (Breivik and Thorbjornsen, 2008) The meanings customers obtain when they participate in brand relationships are function and utilitarianism; others are more psychological and emotional (Fournier, S., 1998) According to Fournier (1994, 1998a), brand relationship quality is a huge concept including several relationship elements such as “affective and socio-motive

attachments (e.g., love/passion, self-connection, nostalgia, etc.)”

Consumer hope

In terms of hope, it is one of the key cognition that “involve both will (motivation) and way (action plans) components in explaining customers’ online purchase and repurchase behaviors” (Snyder et al, 1991), “focus on participants’ levels of hope for

successful performance of a particular task or goal” (Snyder, 2000) The relationship

of hope and customer choices have dedicated in some researchers (Poels and

Dewitte, 2008; Kim et al., 2012) Others have identified there is a positive

relationship of hope with advertising and product evaluation, choice (Macinnis and

De Mello, 2005; Poels and Dewitte, 2008) When and how customers’ perceptions are responded by consumer hope’s psychological, and converted to a more specific relationship (from a customer point of view) and performance outcomes (from a brand point of view) both for customers and the brand (Syed Muhammad Fazal-e-Hasan; Hormoz Ahmadi; Gary Mortimer; Martin Grimmer; Louise Kelly, 2018) Therefore, it can be said that consumer hope is comprehended as consumer belief in gaining many benefits from brand community and quality products

Brand relationship quality and Consumer hope

Previous research suggests that the positive influence of customers’ perceptions of a brand's value on their motivating level and behavior towards the purchase of the brand(Bowlby, 1977; Bretherton, 1985; Feeney and Noller, 1990), giving to that when customers have significant brand relationship quality, they will be motivated by their consumer hope for purchase intention Moreover, the brand value co-creation through

“the interactivity, reliability, usability, content quality and the security of the online brand's platform” may be supportive dramatically for online purchase where the most digital product without physically ones, perception of brand value (quality) may be built (Chang and Chen, 2009) Likewise, “customer perceived brand value contributes

which in turn improves their levels of motivation (will) and the number of alternatives(way) they undertake to attain their purchase-related goals” (Feeney and Noller, 1990;Goldberg, Muir and Kerr, 2013) Therefore, when customers gain many benefits fromonline brand community with brand relationship quality enhanced by every members

of the online community help them pay more attention as well as attaint consumer hope in near future, they are likely to experience hope for continuing positive

relationships between the brand and themselves Thus, it is hypothesized that:

H5: Brand relationship quality in brand community related positively to

consumer satisfaction and job satisfaction, community value satisfaction

Consumer hope and quality of life

The research on the psychology of hope has demonstrated that “hope requires

individuals to employ successful agency (i.e., goal directed energy) and pathways (i.e.,plans to meet the goals)” (Snyder et al., 1991; Rego, Sousa, Marques and Cunha, 2014) Another research states that helps individuals achieve goals, create power for

promotion in the life (Snyder et al., 1991) Furthermore, as presented in the above part

of consumer hope, it is available for positive relationship of hope and customer

choices (Poels and Dewitte, 2008; Kim et al., 2012) as well as advertising and productevaluation and choice outcomes (Macinnis and De Mello, 2005; Poels and Dewitte, 2008) According to social exchange theory, customers will feel obligated to

reciprocate and commit to a relationship when they benefit from others When the relationship commitment is strong, they tend to trust the organization and feel more satisfied with what the organization has promised Because consumer hope may be related to optimism, belief, motivation help members obtain interested value as well

as benefit satisfaction from on brand community, it can be reinforce quality of life Thus,

H6: Consumer hope in brand community related positively to quality of life.

Figure 1: Proposed research Model

Design and Sample

To examine the proposed research model as well as explain the effect of value create practices in brand community on quality of life, a survey was implemented for

interested brand communities in Viet Nam However, in order to improve

respondent’s quality and customers’ focus on their choice of brands, the research was designed a screening question was to exclude respondents having not ever followed any brand community, and a multiple choice for the most usually followed brand community

First of all, qualitative research were carried out in-depth interviews on one-to-one basic with fifteen respondents for ensuring that were applicable for Viet Nam context

in spite of the available mention of measures in the literature, leading to uncover underlying motivation, prejudices, and attitudes of respondents as well as allow more in-depth probing of an issue that is raised for more information Next step was

quantitative research, this study was used key method that was online survey designed

in Google form to access respondents via e-mail or an individual message by social network with introducing the objectives of the study and an embedded link to the survey

The research was designed for the sample size about 250 respondents in online brandcommunities such as Apple brand community for Iphone fans, Channel brand

community for perfume fans, 38 Degree flowers brand community for flower fan and SamSung brand community for the fans of Galaxy lines The suitable reason for

choosing those was the results of the qualitative research showed that most

members had responses about the popularity of them as the most usually followed

brand communities Then, the data was cleaned and remained 239 usable ones In

particularly, the detail infographic was showed in the following table

Table 1: The profile of respondents in the study

In addition, seven-point likert-type scale, anchored by 1 (strongly disagree) and 7 (strongly agree) was used for all items in this study Otherwise, independent

variables are social network practices, community engagement practices, impression management practices and brand use practices, and mediators is brand relationship quality, consumer hope, and dependent variable is quality of life

Data analysis and results

Testing the measurement model

Scale reliability and factor analysis: The first step of reliability and factor analysis was cronbach’s alpha analysis by SPSS 16 software with the proposed values of 0.6 (Cronbach, 1970) for each construct Particularly, all the Cronbach’ alpha value of thefactors exceeds proposed values in the following table

Table 2: Cronbach’s Alpha for all constructs

following factors achieved the given condition with factor loading over 0.5

Table 3: Pattern Matrix in EFA analysis

Then, confirmatory factor analysis was implemented by Amos 20 software in order tomeasure model fit The final CFA model received an acceptable fit to the data with the results exceed proposed values because of Chi-square/df = 1.341 (< 3); p-value

= 000 (<0.05); GFI = 900 (<0.9); CFI = 949(<0.9); TLI = 940 (<0.9) and RMSEA

5, this explained the individual measured items were represented by only one talent construct

Table 4: Standardized CFA loadings of items

Standardized CFA CR AVE

Loadings Impression_Management

It is important for members to show why they love this brand

Members of this brand community actively engage in discussions

to justify their affinity towards this brand

It is important for members of this brand community to create

a favorable impression of this brand for other members

Members of this brand community positively compare this brand

with other competing brands

Members of this brand community share good news about this

brand through posts, photos, events, etc

Members of this brand community actively encourage others to

adopt this brand

Quality of life

Conditions of my life are excellent

I am satisfied with my life

I have gotten the important things I want in life

Consumer Hope

I hope that the brand I purchased online will benefit me

I hope the brand I purchased online will help me pursue my goals.

I hope the brand I purchased online leads to my success

Brand Use

Members of this brand community share their experiences about

their successful and UN-successful attempts at customizing its

products Members share their market knowledge to enhance the

usage of the brand

Caring for the brand is a value in the brand community

Members of this brand community are concerned with the optimal

uses of this brand

Brand Relationship Quality

This brand says a lot about the kind of person I am

This brand's image and my self-image are similar in many respects.

This brand plays an important role in my life.

This brand community recognizes special occasions for me and

sends me personal greetings

Community_Engagement

This brand community has several specific domains to which

members can contribute

There are many pages on social media that are devoted to a

specific aspect of this brand

Seminal experiences with the brand are highly valued in the

brand community

.801 404 691

.672 601 684 580 572

.870 692 902

.823 764

.771 533 848

.702 623

.723 396 626

.699 608 579

.725 471 789

.655 600

.676 417 727

.692 492

.627 364 637

.473 680

Table 5: Correlations of items

Estimate Estimate^2

Impression_Management < > Quality_Of_Life 0.269 0.072 Impression_Management < > Consumer_Hope 0.239 0.057 Impression_Management < > Brand_Use 0.579 0.335 Impression_Management < > Brand_Relationship_Quality 0.449 0.202 Impression_Management < > Social_Network 0.396 0.157 Impression_Management < > Community_Engagement 0.444 0.197

Brand_Relationship_Quality < > Social_Network 0.345 0.119 Brand_Relationship_Quality < > Community_Engagement 0.336 0.113 Social_Network < > Community_Engagement 0.546 0.298

Testing the hypothesis model

This step was measured by Amos 20 software The structural equation modelling

results indicated that the theoretical model had a good fit to the data thanks to

Chi-square/df = 1.339 (<3), p-value = 0.000(< 0.05), CFI =0.948 (> 0.9), TLI = 0.940 (>

0.9), and RMSEA = 0.038(<0.05) (Bentler, 1990) However, there was two

hypotheses H1 and H2 were unsupported because of the p-value of both were lower

than proposed value (0.05) The remained ones were supported with p-value < 0.05

Table 6: Regression Weights in SEM analysis

Estimate S.E C.R P

Brand_Relationship_Quality < -H3 Impression_Management 181 086 2.097 .036 Accepted

Brand_Relationship_Quality < -H4 Brand_Use 249 102 2.452 .014 Accepted

Brand_Relationship_Quality < -H1 Social_Network 104 084 1.229 .219 Rejected

Brand_Relationship_Quality < -H2 Community_Engagement 015 114 129 .897 Rejected

Consumer_Hope < -H5 Brand_Relationship_Quality 494 108 4.562 *** Accepted

Quality_of_Life < -H6 Consumer_Hope 436 089 4.918 *** Accepted

Hypothesis H1, H2, H3, H4 presented the effects of value co-creation practices in the

brand community on brand relationship quality based on social media Specially, the

effects of social network and community engagement on brand relationship quality

(H1 and H2) are unsupported with p-value of 219 and 897 respectively (>0.05)

(Bentler, 1990) On the other hand, the effects of impression management and brand

use (H3 and H4) on brand relationship quality are significant and supported because

the both had p-value of 036 and 014 respectively (Bentler, 1990) As respected,

brand relationship quality had significantly positive influences on consumer hope (H5)

and consumer hope had also significantly positive influences on quality of life (H6)with both p-values of 0.00 (Bentler, 1990).

Discuss and implications

According to the output results of SEM model, it can be said that the existence of relationship between two elements of value co-creation practices in online brand community including impression management, brand use and brand relationship quality as well as the presence of the relationship in series from brand relationshipquality to consumer hope and then quality of life Specifically, brand relationship quality has remarkable influence on consumer hope and then consumer hope has essential effect on quality of life

Contrary to expectations, the effect of social networking and community engagement

on brand relationship quality (H1) is not significant In order to discover some

possible explanations for this finding, a qualitative research was conducted with consumers who are using popular brands such as Apple brand community for Iphone fans, Channel brand community for perfume fans, 38 Degree flowers brand

community for flower fans and SamSung brand community for the fans of Galaxy lines In particular, the selection for interviewees was implemented with

representatives of each above brand communities, they actually desire, interested in the their brand so much as well as follow their brand community regular most The qualitative research found the insights of their opinion with the detail question “What

is your opinion about the enhancing influence of the following factors on brand

Table 7: A again qualitative survey report

The most usually

networking engagement management community

Respondent 1 Channel brand Not sure because I No, I have engaging Yes, I am interested in Yes, I consider it as a ( Gender: Female; Age: 30; community for perfume see that social with community but the feature scent that I necessary partner, I use it Education: Master; Income: > 30 fans network has many not show my choose, scent show my everyday and Channel has million) (how long: 3-5 years) advertising posts personality personality been by me for 3 years.

Not sure, I see that

that I always like share Education: Bachelor; Income:10-20 of Galaxy lines in order to chat my brand but I follow about effective use and

every about unique million) (how long: 3-5 years) friends there regularly to update loading favour apps.

technology of Galaxy new market trends.

lines.

Respondent 3 38 Degree Flowers No, because the May be no, I engage

Yes, I love flowers and Yes, I collect flowers every dreamlike beauty I week When I sad, looking at ( Gender: Female; Age: 27; brand community for posts in social there in order to read

want to be similar with favour flowers makes me Education: Bachelor; Income:10-20 flower fans network may not be news and lovely

petal: beautiful, more positive and enjoy my million) (how long: 1-3 years) true flower stories.

delicate, bright life.

May be yes, I see May be yes, This smart phone

( Gender: Male; Age: 32; social network, I almost read news

for Iphone fans creative, dynamic, become easily and convenient Education: Bachelor; Income: 20- deem it is a virtual and share new

(how long: 3-5 years) lively, individuality So I pay more attention about

My personality is effective use, especially, smart activities.

similar like that apps on Apple apps store.

26

In general, it can be seen in above responses that there are some quite suitable

reason for explanation of output SEM results

Firstly, social network may be considered as a entertainment space, “virtual world” forenjoying with friends There is no denying that social network make everyone closer with remarkable interaction, however, members in online brand community deem that post there may not be true or for advertising so that they rarely share their personality

As an results, social network has not impact on brand relationship quality An author indicates that many comments are namelessly published for online sales, also reduces the credibility of information in the background of social network (Wellman, 1997) Secondly, community engagement has no effect with brand relationship quality

because that members in online brand communities engage their community for finding new market trends, technology as well as knowledge, but not interested in displaying their characteristics

Nevertheless, according to the table 6, members in online brand community may be curiously about impression management practices and brand use practices, and the both is considered that has significant influences on brand relationship quality owing

to impression management and brand use bring pleasure to them Specifically, they may have concentration on unique features of brand they prefer due to the observablesimilarity of their personality such as be favourite technology, scent and delicate, leading to enhance brand relationship quality Additional, they may also concern brand as a partner when they use it everyday as it may be deemed as their friends, andmake their life better and enjoying

For reality, several implications have arisen from the results of this research First, individuals should aware that brand they are using everyday and online brand

community they are following everyday have remarkable effect on their quality of life.Because this is a process from value co-creation practices including impression

management and brand use to building continuously the similarity of brand features and their personality, leading to stimulate consumer hope and then quality of life And

by extension, if anyone have a feeling about a boring life and want to improve their quality of life, one of aspects they should consider is to change brands they are using

as well as revive value co-creation practices in followed brand communities, the followed community should be right one with their personality, these will make their life become much more interesting Second, in terms of business cooperation,

Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR) is taken in substantial consideration in recent years because of large cost in order to build value for social and improve quality of life Nonetheless, building brand community with the value co-creation practices in brand communities, businesses will gain the potential consequences due to vast reach, low cost and popularity of social media, many businesses almost blindly take these advantages to optimize CSR cost The findings of the study help CEO have more insights into value co-co-creation practices for social as well as share helpful

knowledge Hence, this can be a efficient solution for the CSR problem of cooperation

by building harmonious brand community based on social media

Limitations and direction for future research

Actually, this study has some limitations that can be indicated for future investigation.The first limitation is to choose some brand communities for responding surveys tested in the context of online social media, may not be representative of all online brand communities developed on the social media, then generalizing the findings to other brand communities In fact, it is no doubt that value co-creation practices in different brand communities will not lead to similar levels of brand relationship

quality for all brands, as a result, it may be obtain slightly different outcomes from thestudy results Therefore, the study admits the limitation and suggests that researchers should consider a effective solution for this problem In this case, it is no surprise that the huge sample will result in more exact findings

The second limitation is mainly concentrated on the positive effect of value creation practices on brand relationship quality as well as the influence of brand relationship quality on consumer hope and quality of life whereas the lack of test themoderator of profile of respondents such as income and education affect relationshipbetween consumer hope and quality of life A possible reason that income and

co-co-education influence consumer hope and quality of life because those achieving high income and high qualified will be more positive views about consumer hope and quality of life Therefore, researchers may consider the moderator of income and education over time to track the study subjects

Overall, it is suggested suitable implications for not only the individual aspect thatcan make improving quality of life by using right brand as well as sharing a lot ofvalues in right brand community but also the cooperate aspect that can give anefficient solution for reducing the CSR cost of companies.

Appendix Questionnaire in English

Dear Mr/Mrs,

I am Mui Le I am a master student of International School of Business – University ofEconomics Ho Chi Minh city I am conducting master thesis in brand community.Your answers will be completely confidential for only my main purpose of research.Actually, I appreciate significantly your cooperation!

Many thanks for taking your time on my research!

Part A: SCREENING QUESTION

1 Are you following any online brand community?

□ No, I am not (you can stop here Thank you so much!)

□ Yes, I am following at least a one (you will move next question Thank you so much!)

2 What is the online brand communities that you usually follow most?

□ Apple brand community for Iphone fans

□ Channel brand community for perfume fans

□ 38 Degree Flowers brand community for flower fans

□ Sam Sung brand community for the fans of Galaxy lines

□ Others:… …(write down detail)