Brand communities and self-concept congruency in the case of a music festival

Abstract

Brand communities have become a popular research area in the last decades. However, the topic still raises several questions. The current study aims to examine how the psychological sense of a brand community influences commitment, loyalty and word-of-mouth; and how self-concept congruency affects the psychological sense of a brand community. A paper and pencil interview was carried out on the venue of a Hungarian music festival in 2015. Seven and hundred and seven answers were collected and partial least squares path analysis was applied to interpret the results. The empirical results support that the psychological sense of a brand community has a direct effect on commitment and on word-of-mouth, and it has an indirect effect on loyalty. Also, self-concept congruency has a direct effect on the psychological sense of a brand community. This study has developed a new model which offers a basis for further scientific and practical applications. Placing self-concept congruency in the model is a novelty, and its effect on the psychological sense of a brand community is a new result.