The Fan Community’s Influence on Customer Participation in and the Development of Brand-Centric Commercial Ecosystems for Micro and Small Businesses
Abstract
Within the Geek subculture, the relationship of brand/fan community members to the focal brand becomes interwoven into the individual’s identity. This relationship is often examined through the lens of Social Capital Theory and Brand Engagement. Existing literature, however, has been solely focused on the development of the relationship between community and brand while ignoring how the community develops as a “brand-centric” entrepreneurial ecosystem. This study examines how entrepreneurial and marketing eco-systems form in such communities by focusing on one niche fan community, the Twitch stream Critical Role. Intercommunity engagement was studied through a netnographic survey of the fan community via the official Reddit page along with interviews which were conducted with fan community members and Etsy shop store owners. Community members (n=322) were surveyed based on the themes developed from the qualitative studies and data were analyzed using relational statistical models. The support of micro and small businesses and artists discovered from within the fan community were shown to significantly (p< 0.00001) contribute to brand and community connectivity, engagement, social capital and brand loyalty.
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