Consumer community cognition, brand loyalty, and behaviour intentions within online publishing communities: An empirical study of Epubit in China

Online community marketing has become an important strategy for awareness and advocacy in many different sectors, including the publishing industry. Research has confirmed its value in establishing brand awareness and strengthening brand loyalty among consumers. This study investigates the Epubit community as an example of successful community marketing to question how such tactics can be adopted more widely by publishers. Epubit is a Chinese online community for IT hobbyists and has been very successful in engaging its community since 2016. In this study, we surveyed members from the Epubit community to address several hypotheses regarding the behavioural responses of online communities. We obtained 325 questionnaires and on analysis discovered that interactivity, word‐of‐mouth, and informativity (i.e. information exchange) can influence consumers' brand affinity in the online publishing community. We conclude that publishers should emphasize member interaction, encourage user feedback, and focus on the value of shared knowledge and co‐creativity. Although this research investigates at Chinese community, the findings may have application in other regions.