The Demand Hierarchy Model of Online Brand Community Participation——An Exploratory Research Based on Grounded Theory
YAN Xin-feng1, WANG Bing-xu2, LIU Chun-hong1, CHEN Li-hong1
1.School of Business Management, Donghua University,Shanghai 200051, China; 2.Economics School, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China
Abstract：
The formation of Online Brand Community (OBC) make traditional chain customer-enterprise relationship give way to net type relationship. Consumer takes part in the OBC with different demand. Through three level coding and analyzing the posts collected from the online brand community, this study develops a hierarchy model on demand of online brand community participation using the method of grounded theory. The model shows that the demand of online brand community participation can be divided into five levels: functional demand, self-expression, social interaction, respecting, self-realization. For participants with distinct ranking who join in the OBC may have different motivation and subsequent brand support conduct. This paper proposes strategies concerning effective participants’ demand management and targeted incentive policy implement based on the model.
YAN Xin-feng, WANG Bing-xu, LIU Chun-hong, CHEN Li-hong.The Demand Hierarchy Model of Online Brand Community Participation——An Exploratory Research Based on Grounded Theory[J] Economic Survey, 2015,V32(1): 90-95
2015 
