Not much work has been done to study the impact of various organizational variables on brand communities around various brands and consequently we have limited knowledge on how to build brand communities. Strong brand communities can be of tremendous value to organizations by generating increased customer loyalty towards their brands. This study attempts to examine the impact of corporate social responsibility and transformational leadership on brand community. The study employed a scenario based 2 × 2 experimental design, with corporate social responsibility and transformational leadership as the manipulated variables. The sample consisted of 118 graduate students doing the first year of their MBA programme in a leading management institute in India. Due to lack of availability of any standard measure, an instrument was developed to measure brand communities. Results of 2 × 2 factored analysis of variance show that brand community is enhanced by both corporate social responsibility and transformational leadership. The implications of these findings for firms and their top management are discussed.
Algesheimer, R. , U.M. Dholakia and A. Herrmann . 2005. ‘ The Social Influence of Brand Community: Evidence from European Car Clubs ’, Journal of Marketing, 69(3): 19–34 .
3.
Ardichvili, A. and A. Gasparishvili . 2001. ‘ Leadership Profiles of Managers in Post-communist Countries: A Comparative Study ’, Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 22(2): 691.
4.
Aupperle, K. , A. Carroll and J. Hatfield . 1985. ‘ An Empirical Examination of the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Profitability ’, Academy of Management Journal, 28(2): 446–63 .
5.
Bass, B.M.1985. Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations. New York: Free Press .
6.
Bass, B.M.1997. ‘ Does the Transactional/transformational Leadership Transcend Organizational and National Boundaries? ’, American Psychologist, 52(2): 130–39 .
7.
Bass, B.M.1998. Transformational Leadership: Industrial, Military, and Educational Impact. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates .
8.
Bass, B.M. and B.J. Avolio . 1995. Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Redwood City, CA: Mind Garden .
9.
Bass, B.M. and P. Steidlmeier . 1999. ‘ Ethics, Character, and Authentic Transformational Leadership Behavior ’, Leadership Quarterly, 10(2): 181–217 .
10.
Bass, B.M. , B.J. Avolio and L. Goodheim . 1987. ‘ Biography and the Assessment of Transformational Leadership at the World Class Level ’, Journal of Management, 13(1): 7–19 .
11.
Bender, T.1978. Community and Social Change in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press .
12.
Biehal, G.J. and D.A. Sheinin . 2007. ‘ The Influence of Corporate Messages on the Product Portfolio ’, Journal of Marketing, 71(2): 12–25 .
13.
Blumenthal, D. and A.J. Bergstrom . 2003. ‘ Brand Councils That Care: Towards the Convergence of Branding and Corporate Social Responsibility ’, Journal of Brand Management, 10(4/5): 327–41 .
14.
Brown, T.J. and P.A. Dacin . 1997. ‘ The Company and The Product: Corporate Associations and Consumer Product Responses ’, Journal of Marketing, 61(1): 68–84 .
15.
Burns, J.M.1978. Leadership. New York: Harper & Row .
16.
Carroll, A.B.1979. ‘ A Three-dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Performance ’, Academy of Management Review, 4(4): 497–505 .
17.
Cochran, P. and R. Wood . 1984. ‘ Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance ’, Academy of Management Journal, 27(1): 42–56 .
18.
Cova, B. and S. Pace . 2006. ‘ Brand Community of Convenience Products: New Forms of Customer Empowerment—The Case “My Nutella The Community” ’, European Journal of Marketing, 40 (9/10): 1087–1105 .
19.
Fanelli, A. and V.F. Misangyi . 2006. ‘ Bringing out Charisma: CEO Charisma and External Stakeholders ’, Academy of Management Review, 31(4): 1049–61 .
20.
Flynn, F.J. and B.M. Staw . 2004. ‘ Lend Me Your Wallets: The Effect of Charismatic Leadership on External Support for an Organization ’, Strategic Management Journal, 25(4): 309–30 .
21.
Gardner, W.L. and B.J. Avolio . 1998. ‘ The Charismatic Leadership: A Dramaturgical Perspective ’, Academy of Management Review, 23(1): 32–58 .
Hoeffler, S. and K.L. Keller . 2002. ‘ Building Brand Equity through Corporate Societal Marketing ’, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 21(1): 78–89 .
24.
Jayakody, J.A.S.K. and W.M.A. Sanjeewani . 2006. ‘ The Impact of Salesperson Transformational Leadership Behavior on Customer Relationship Marketing Behavior ’, International Journal of Bank Marketing, 24 (7): 461–74 .
25.
Kanungo, R.N. and M. Mendonca . 1996. Ethical Dimensions of Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications .
26.
Keeley, M.1995. ‘ The Trouble with Transformational Leadership: Toward a Federalist Ethic for Organizations ’, Business Ethics Quarterly, 5(1): 67–96 .
27.
Kotter, J.P.1995. ‘ Leading Change: Why Transformational Efforts Fail ’, Harvard Business Review, 73(2): 59–67 .
28.
Krishnan, V.R.2005. ‘ Transformational Leadership and Outcomes: Role of Relationship Duration ’, Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 26(6): 442–57 .
29.
Lafferty, B.A. and R.E. Goldsmith . 1999. ‘Corporate Credibility's Role in Consumers’Attitudes and Purchase Intentions when a High versus a Low Credibility Endorser is used in the Ad ’, Journal of Business Research, 44(2): 109–16 .
30.
Leithwood, K. , D. Tomlinson and M. Genge . 1996. ‘Transformational School Leadership’, in K. Leithwood , J. Chapman , D. Corson , P. Hallinger and A. Hart (eds), International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Administration, pp. 785–840. Dordrecht: Kluwer .
31.
Marin, L. and S. Ruiz . 2007. ‘ “I Need You Too!” Corporate Identity Attractiveness for Consumers and the Role of Social Responsibility ’, Journal of Business Ethics, 71(3): 245–60 .
32.
McAlexander, J.H. , J.W. Schouten and H.F. Koening . 2002. ‘ Building Brand Community ’, Journal of Marketing, 66(1): 38–54 .
33.
McGuire, J.B. , A. Sundgren and T. Schneeweis . 1988. ‘ Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Financial Performance ’, Academy of Management Journal, 31(4): 854–72 .
34.
McWilliam, G.2000. ‘ Building Stronger Brand through Online Communities ’, Sloan Management Review, 41(3): 43–54 .
35.
Mehta, P. and V.R. Krishnan . 1999. ‘ Role of Leadership in Building a Sense of Community: A Preliminary Investigation ’, Management and Labour Studies, 24(4): 236–42 .
36.
Menguc, B. , S. Auh and E. Shih . 2007. ‘ Transformational Leadership and Market Orientation: Implications for the Implementation of Competitive Strategies and Business Unit Performance ’, Journal of Business Research, 60(4): 314–21 .
37.
Miller, B.A.2002. ‘ Social Initiatives can Boost Loyalty ’, Marketing News, 36(21): 14–15 .
38.
Moir, L.2001. ‘ What Do We Mean by Corporate Social Responsibility? ’, Corporate Governance, 1(2): 16–22 .
39.
Muniz, A.M. Jr. and T.C. O'Guinn . 2001. ‘ Brand Community ’, Journal of Consumer Research, 27(4): 412–32 .
40.
Murray, K.B. and C.M. Vogel . 1997. ‘ Using a Hierarchy of Effects Approach to Gauge the Effectiveness of Corporate Social Responsibility to Generate Goodwill toward the Firm: Financial versus Nonfinancial Impacts ’, Journal of Business Research, 38(2): 141–59 .
41.
Owen, C.L. and R.F. Scherer . 1993. ‘ Social Responsibility and Market Share ’, Review of Business, 15(1): 11–16 .
42.
Pawar, B.S. and K.K. Eastman . 1997. ‘ The Nature and Implications of Contextual Influences on Transformational Leadership: A Conceptual Examination ’, Academy of Management Review, 22(1): 80–109 .
43.
Prykop, C. and M. Heitmann . 2006. ‘ Designing Mobile Brand Communities: Concept and Empirical Illustration ’, Journal of Organizational Computing & Electronic Commerce, 16 (3/4): 301–23 .
44.
Schouten, J.W. and J.H. McAlexander . 1995. ‘ Subcultures of Consumption: An Ethnography of the New Bikers ’, Journal of Consumer Research, 22(1): 43–61 .
45.
Shamir, B. , R.J. House and M.B. Arthur . 1993. ‘ The Motivational Effects of Charismatic Leaders: A Selfconcept Based Theory ’, Organizational Science, 4: 577–94 .
46.
Smith, S.M. and D.S. Alcorn . 1991. ‘ Cause Marketing: A New Direction in the Marketing of Corporate Responsibility ’, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 8(3): 19–35 .
47.
Solomon, R. and K. Hansen . 1985. It's Good Business. New York: Antheneum .
48.
Ullmann, A.A.1985. ‘ Data in Search of a Theory: A Critical Examination of the Relationships among Social Performance, Social Disclosure, and Economic Performance of the U.S. firms ’, Academy of Management Review, 10(3): 540–57 .
49.
Wartick, S.L. and P.L. Cochran . 1985. ‘ The Evolution of the Corporate Social Performance Model ’, Academy of Management Review, 10(4): 758–69 .
50.
Weber, M. [1922]1978. Economy and Society. Berkeley: University of California Press .
51.
Willmott, M.2003. ‘ Citizen Brands: Corporate Citizenship, Trust, and Branding ’, Journal of Brand Management, 10(4/5): 362–69 .
52.
Wood, D.J.1991. ‘ Corporate Social Performance Revisited ’, Academy of Management Review, 16(4): 691–718 .
