Impact of Social Support on Customer Satisfaction and Citizenship Behavior in Online Brand Communities

Abstract

Online brand communities are getting popularity because of the increase in the use of social media. Customers join online brand communities to get the solutions to their problems and social support from firms and other customers after using the product. When customers get social support from the firm or other customers they show customer citizenship behavior. This study established the theoretical structure to explore the influence of social support on customer satisfaction and customer citizenship behavior in the context of online brand communities. Moreover, the mediating role of customer satisfaction was also measured. Partial Least Square was used to test the model. The results showed informational support had a positive relationship with customer satisfaction, altruism, courtesy, conscientiousness, and sportsmanship, except civic virtue. Emotional support was positively related to altruism, courtesy, conscientiousness, and sportsmanship, except civic virtue and customer satisfaction. Whereas, customer satisfaction was positively related to sportsmanship and civic virtue. Customer satisfaction also mediates the relationship between dimensions of social support and customer citizenship behaviour