Factors Influencing Brand Community Commitment in Social Media: Evidence in Malaysia

Factors Influencing Brand Community Commitment in Social Media: Evidence in Malaysia

*Siti Noor Aishah Mohd Sidik¹, Adilah Othman², Kanesh Gopal³

^1,2Faculty Business and Management, Universiti Teknologi Mara, 23000 Dungun, Terengganu, Malaysia

³School of Marketing and Management, Asia Pacific University, 53300, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

*Correspondence Author

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.909000310

Received: 04 September 2025; Accepted: 10 September 2025; Published: 09 October 2025

ABSTRACT

Online brand communities (OBC) play an important role in influencing others’ customer perception toward a brand. The advance of technology such as social media gives an opportunity to OBC to communicate with other members and give reactions to the brand. The positive reaction from OBC indirectly gives a positive perception in the customer’s mind, but the negative feeling can tarnish the brand image with just one click. This study examines the relationship between brand love, brand trust, brand experience, and brand community commitment. The quantitative study and online surveys via Facebook have been used, and the respondent was selected using random sample technique. Data were analyzed using SPSS to assess the relationship between each variable. A survey among 386 OBC reveals that brand love, brand trust, and brand experience play a vital role in influencing brand community commitment. OBCs who commit to the brand community are willing to share opinions with other members and continue relationships with the companies. Implication and research suggestions are further highlighted for future studies

Keywords: Brand trust, brand love, brand experience, commitment, online brand communities.

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, the advancement of social media alters the landscape in which marketers offer their product or service. The company uses social media to disseminate product information and engage with customers indirectly. The active participation of customers in social media platforms such as Facebook leads to the formation of online brand communities (OBC) for the specific brand. In Malaysia, Facebook users are increasing by the day, reaching 20.25 million by 2023 (Ridzauddin & Fuad 2023). Facebook, as a platform for OBC, allows users to share a common enthusiasm for a particular brand and create deep bonds with one another. A brand community is a group of users and admirers of a particular brand with the aim of accomplishing collective goals or expressing mutual sentiments and commitment (Stokburger-Saucer, 2010). The existence of OBC fosters involvement between the customer and the company itself. OBC provides a platform for the company to acquire product or service information, engage with customers, share product information, and receive feedback updates (Hsu, 2012; Paruthi, Kaur, Islam, Rasool, & Thomas, 2023). OBC also influences brand loyalty, word-of-mouth intention, purchase intention, and brand evangelism (Huang, Wang, & Lin, 2022; Phan Tan, 2024; Bhandari, Bhattarai, & Mulholland, 2024; Yu, 2025). As a result, OBCs play an important role in enhancing the organization’s competitive advantages. Nowadays, understanding the reactions of online brand communities (OBC) on social media is important. Generally, customers who are unsatisfied with the brand give negative reactions, such as posting bad comments about the brand. The negative comment influences customers’ perceptions and evaluations before buying a particular brand. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine how much brand trust, brand love, and brand experience influence brand community commitment, such as caring about the brand’s long-term success and visiting OBC on a regular basis. This is because any negative issue on social media can tarnish brand reputation with just one click.

LITERITURE REVIEW

Brand community commitment

Commitment refers to the members’ desire to maintain their relationships with a brand community (Zhou, Zhang, Su, & Zhou, 2012). In the digital era, customers rely on social media for search information before purchasing their desired brand (Shankar, Smith, & Rangaswamy, 2003). They prefer to view and read comments from other customers to reduce feelings of uncertainty. Therefore, the existence of OBC indirectly helps the company promote the product. OBCs who commit to the brand community will develop a positive attitude toward the brand, such as sharing information, engaging in WOM, and making constructive complaints (Hur, Ahn, & Kim, 2011; Yuan, Deng, & Zhong, 2021; Phan Tan, 2024; Santos & Díaz, 2025). Previous research revealed that factors such as psychological attachment, online community characteristics, perceived social interactions, community identification, social responsibility, and service quality play important roles in influencing brand community commitment (Zhou & Amin, 2014; Confente & Kucharska, 2021; Ali, Wahyu, Darmawan, Retnowati, & Lestari, 2022; Suandi, Wahyudi, Yoda, & Reswita, 2025). However, factors such as brand love, brand experience, and brand trust are still less explored and require further exploration.

Brand trust

Trust and commitment are important constructs in relationship marketing (Morgan & Hunt, 1994). OBC who trust the brand are likely to be loyal and engage with its community. In fact, the feeling of trust influences the customer’s commitment to buy the same brand (Fullerton, 2011). Previous studies revealed that trust had influenced customer commitment to being loyal and active in OBC (Shaari & Ahmad, 2016; Suhan, Nayak, Spulbar, Vidya Bai, Birau, & Stanciu, 2022; Sethi, Dash, Mishra, & Cyr, 2024). In fact, the more OBC trust the brand, the more they are willing to engage in WOM. This is because loyal customers are more inclined to share positive word of mouth when they are satisfied with and trust the brand. It clearly demonstrates that brand trust is an important aspect in fostering customer commitment. However, there is currently a lack of research that directly addresses the relationship between brand trust and commitment in the context of the brand community. The previous research focused on the effect of brand trust with brand community engagement, brand loyalty, and purchase intention (Althuwaini, 2022; Sethi, et al., 2024; Yasin, Porcu, Zarco, & Liébana-Cabanillas, 2025; Gamage & Gunawardane, 2025). Therefore, the following hypothesis is being proposed:

H1: Brand trust has a significant relationship to brand community commitment

Brand Love

Brand love is the “degree of passionate emotional attachment a satisfied consumer has for a particular trade name” (Carroll & Ahuvia 2006). The feeling of love toward a brand plays an important role in influencing customer commitment to continue a positive relationship with a brand. They are engaged in co-creation behavior and recommend their loved brand to other communities (Garg, Mukherjee, Biswas, & Kataria, 2015; Paruthi et al., 2023; Wong & Hung, 2023; Mujahid & Khandai, 2025). However, less attention has been paid to exploring the impact of brand love in driving commitment in the context of an online brand community. Therefore, the following hypothesis is being proposed:

H2: Brand love has a significant relationship to brand community commitment

Brand Experience

Experiences occur when customers search, buy, receive service, and consume the product (Brakus, Schmitt, & Zhang, 2007). In an online context, members who encounter various experiences with a brand freely support each other. They are willing to comment and solve other OBC problems (Sloan, Bodey, & Gyrd-Jones, 2015; Zhang, Hu, Guo, & Liu, 2017; Yadav, Sangroya, & Pereira, 2025). The community also prefers to commit in online communities due to fast response and feedback. This is in line with previous studies that also revealed that brand experience plays an important role in influencing brand community commitment (Schouten, McAlexander, & Koenig, 2007; Wang, Cao, & Park, 2019; Roy, Gruner, & Guo, 2022; Tijjang, Junaidi, Nurfadhilah, & Putra, 2023). Therefore, the following hypothesis is being proposed:

H3: Brand experience has a significant relationship to brand community commitment

METHODOLOGY

The types of this study are quantitative and correlational research, which is an attempt to examine the relationship between brand trust, brand love, brand experience, and community commitment. Data collection involved 580 automobile OBCs in Malaysia and was collected using the simple random sampling technique. The most active Facebook OBC was chosen to get the information. After receiving permission from the respondents, the questionnaire was sent via Facebook’s inbox. The samples were collected by randomly selecting three persons from a list in the Facebook group. However, only 386 questionnaires were collected and used for data analysis. This study adapted a questionnaire from previous research. The item of brand trust was adapted from Delgado-Ballester (2004), brand love was adapted from Carroll and Ahuvia (2006), brand experience was adapted from Brakus, Schmitt & Zarantonello (2009), and brand community commitment was adapted from Algesheimer, Dholakia, and Herrmann (2005) and Jang, Olfman, Ko, Koh, and Kim (2008). Respondents assessed their degree of agreement to questions using a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

FINDINGS

Profile of Respondents 

Table 1 illustrates male respondents are dominant at 88.6%. Male respondents are more prone to positively respond to the survey as compared to females. They are more concerned about their privacy and worry about disclosing personal information online (Walrave, Vanwesenbeeck & Heirman, 2012). Respondents are mostly between 27 and 35 years old (52.8%). The respondents’ income ranges between RM 2,001 and 4,000 (44.8%), and surveyed respondents are from Selangor (31.7%). The survey included five automobile OBC groups in Malaysia. Members from Perodua Alza Club (ALZA) contributed 23.2% of the responses, 20.7% were from Civic FD Club Malaysia (CFDC), 19.9% were from Proton Saga BLM Owners Club (PROSBOC), 17.3% were from Exora Owners Club Motorsport (EOCM), and 18.9% were responses from the Toyota brand community. In terms of OBC engagement, 42.0% have entered the community less than a year ago. Table 2 displays further information. In terms of posting frequency, 230 respondents rarely post in OBC (59.6%), while 64.2% of respondents sometimes post their own comments.

Table 1:  Respondent’s Profile

Table 2:  General Behaviour of Online Brand Community.

Table 2 illustrates 35.0% of male and 65.0% of female students from program operation management responding to the survey. The majority of the respondents’ age is 23 years (55.0%), followed by 22 years old (21.0%). Mostly the students are from semester 5 (42.0%) and semester 4 (34.0%).

Table 3: Descriptive Analysis for Research Variables

Table 3 illustrates descriptive analysis for research variables. Community Commitment shows the highest mean value, which is 0.724. Brand experience (0.722), followed by brand trust (0.706) and brand love, with both mean values at 0.668.

Correlation Analysis

Table 4: Pearson Correlation Result

Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Correlation analysis was run to examine the relationship between the research variables. This study found that all the research variables positively correlated with brand community commitment. The R-value for brand trust is (r= 0.430), brand love (r= 0.597), and brand experience (r= 0.406). This indicates that all these variables correlate moderately with community commitment.

Regression Analysis

Multiple regression analysis signifies the predictive power of independent variables towards the dependent variables. The coefficient of determination R² value indicates model fit, an R² value of 0.02 indicates poor model fit or weak contribution of the model, an R² value of 0.13 is considered a moderate level of model fit; whereas an R² value of 0.26 and above indicates substantial contribution of the model, or, in other words, it indicates good model fit.

Table 5: Regression Analysis Result

Based on Table 5, the largest beta value is brand trust (β 0.303, ρ≤0.05). This indicates that brand trust is the most important factor that influences students’ satisfaction. This is followed by brand love (β 0.237, ρ ≤ 0.05) and brand experience (β 0.134, ρ ≤ 0.05). Based on the R-squared result, all the research variables (brand trust, brand love, and brand experience) contribute 31.9% toward brand community commitment. Which is highly significant, and the model is fit, as the F statistic is 50.559 (F≥1) and the ρ-value is 0.001, which is less than (ρ≤0.05).

DISCUSSION

This study discovered that brand trust, love, and experience had a strong association with brand community commitment. The finding is in line with social exchange theory (SET), which is that people develop and maintain relationships with others over time because there is the belief that doing so will benefit both the customers and organizations (Blau, 1964). Social exchange relationships evolve when automobile companies put full effort into delivering the best product or service to their customer. Customers who are happy with the company will reciprocate back by spreading positive WOM about the brand and become loyal customers. Based on the survey, OBCs who trust the brand are willing to build long-term relationships with other brand communities. This is consistent with prior research, which indicated that brand trust influences brand community commitment on social media (Hur et al., 2011; Pournaris & Lee, 2016; Shaari & Ahmad, 2017; Putra, Astuti, Kusumawati, & Abdillah, 2020; Suhan et al., 2024). The feeling of affection for a brand is also a valuable asset to the firm. A brand community that likes the brand will commit to positive action, such as recommending the brand to other customers (Paruthi et al., 2023). This is in line with previous research that also revealed that the more customers love the brand, the more they are likely to commit to the brand community, such as exchanging information and opinions among OBC members (Hur et al., 2011; Dam, 2020; Jain & Malhotra, 2024; Mujahid & Khandai, 2025). Therefore, the company must always create engagement in social media to encourage OBC to maintain long-term relationships with the brand community. The efficient way is creating a contest and live streaming to communicate with the customers. Moreover, in an online context, customers always express their feelings toward a brand. The customer who is satisfied with the product will share a positive experience. They also commit to creating relationships with others and actively sharing about a brand. This is consistent with other studies, which found that brand experience will influence brand community commitment (Iglesias, Singh, & Batista-Foguet, 2011; Aishah & Shaari, 2017; Wang, Cao, & Park, 2019; Ardakani, Konjkav Monfared, & Zarabkhaneh, 2021; Liang, 2022). In fact, a company must always ensure that customers feel satisfied with the product and always get a positive brand experience. In a service context, employee communication and time management are important to influence the feelings of the customers. They always expect the company to treat them well and be responsible for any problem related to the product.

MANAGERIAL IMPLICATION

This study helps companies understand the factors that build commitment, which are brand trust, brand love, and brand experience, in ensuring stronger customer-brand relationships. Research on online brand community (OBC) commitment is critical for companies because these communities have become powerful drivers of customer engagement, positive WOM, and business growth. OBC members with strong commitment to an online brand community are more likely to repurchase, recommend, and defend the brand (Hassan & Casaló Ariño, 2016; Chang, Hsieh, & Tseng, 2013; Jasin, 2022). This study also serves as a guideline for automobile companies to create a strategy for enhancing long-term brand value and provides insights for product development. In fact, OBC members committed to providing feedback and being involved in co-creating innovations. Therefore, companies must build a strong sense of belonging among OBC members, such as creating exclusive spaces (online groups, apps, and forums) where members feel part of the company. Social media managers also can foster two-way communication by encouraging dialogue rather than one-way advertising. They must respond actively to customer feedback, comments, and suggestions. The most efficient way is using polls, surveys, and open Q&A sessions to show that customer voices matter and customer problems can be solved in a short time.

LIMITATION

This research has several limitations that can provide opportunities for future studies. Malaysia is a country with a diversified culture. Therefore, future research can examine the OBC commitment by ethnic group to understand how different ethnic groups react in online communities. This study also only focused on Facebook as a platform to conduct a survey. Therefore, future studies can use other social media platforms, such as WhatsApp, Instagram, or Telegram, as a main sample of the study. Further research also may use comparative studies across different countries, industries, or platforms, as well as longitudinal designs to capture changes over time.

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