Online brand communities: a literature review

Competition in the global market is driving companies to find innovative approaches to business. The Internet explosion resulted in the transition from physical business places (companies, shops, etc.) to a virtual ones, creating new sources of competitiveness for those companies that are able to take advantage of this opportunity. Among them, one of the most promising is the online brand communities, born from the combination of conventional (physical) brand communities and Web 2.0 technologies. Indeed, a company exploitation of the online brand communities can hugely increase knowledge about customer needs, preferences and desires (actual and potential). This paper presents a literature review on online brand communities focusing on their distinctive characteristics. We highlight the managerial implications related to the exploitation of online brand communities, identifying which set of key factors companies should leverage on in order to improve their business. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.