Abstract
M.Com. (Marketing Management)
The use of online brand communities to enhance customer-to-customer as well as customer-to-business interaction is a recent phenomenon. As such, not much is known about the influence of online brand communities on consumer’s decision making process. This dissertation reports on the findings of a study aimed at understanding the customer-to-customer online brand community related factors that influence consumers’ choice of banking services. The study was conducted in Gauteng, South Africa. A conceptual model guided by the Information Adoption Model (IAM) was developed and used to test the proposed relationships. Variables in the proposed model included perceived human interactivity, perceived argument quality, perceived source credibility, perceived information usefulness, attitude towards the brand community and behavioural intentions.
The study was descriptive in nature and made use of the quantitative research method. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Construct items were measured using a 7-point Likert scale. Customers of two banks namely Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (ABSA) and Standard Bank who have made use of the community sites were targeted for data collection, as these banks have active online brand community sites.
The quota sampling method was used to select respondents. By the end of the data collection period a total of 200 usable responses were obtained. Of these 100 responses were from male customers and 100 responses were from female customers. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22 was used to analyse the data with the assistance of the University of Johannesburg Statistical Consulting Services (STATKON). Descriptive statistics, factor analysis (exploratory), regression analysis and independent sample t-testing were the statistical techniques used to analyse the data.
Findings of this study show that customer attitudes towards their banks’ online community sites significantly influence their intention to use information on the site to make choices related to bank services. The findings further reveal that customer-to-customer online related factors of perceived source credibility and perceived human interactivity have a positive influence on perceived information usefulness as well as...