The focus of this dissertation is to develop insights regarding the use of online brand communities (i.e., discussion forums, blogs, or other social media sites centered around a single brand or branded product) and marketing research online communities (MROCs) as strategic marketing assets to influence brand and community outcomes. This is one of the first academic research studies of MROCs. Technological advances in the last decade have fundamentally changed the tools available to marketers and enabled them to socially interact with a broader base of consumers. I developed and validated scales to measure the diverse motivations online brand community members have to participate in online brand communities using 5 rounds of quantitative and qualitative data collection from a total of 660 online brand community members. I found that there are 11 distinct motivations online brand community members have to interact with online brand communities. Additionally, I developed and tested a model to test the effects of fit between marketing activities and community member motivations to leverage social dynamics and influence brand and community outcomes using longitudinal surveys and secondary data from 256 members of 8 MROCs. There is strong support that online brand communities and MROCs can be used as strategic marketing assets to enhance brand assessments (i.e., brand commitment and oppositional brand loyalty), supportive brand behaviors (i.e., word-of-mouth, defending the brand, and willingness to pay a price premium) and supportive community behaviors (i.e., participation intentions and community participation). In addition, I also found counterintuitive results for the leveraging effects of marketing activities and engagement. Overall, this research contributes to the strategic marketing literature, marketing practice, marketing research firms, and marketing consultants by assessing the degree to which online brand communities and MROCs can be used as strategic marketing assets to influence a loose hierarchy of effects for brand and community outcomes. Furthermore, this research contributes to the relationship marketing literature by classifying the motivations online brand community members have to form relationships with firms, brands, and other community members.
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