Understanding the participation of passive members in online brand communities through the lens of psychological ownership theory

Abstract The presence of a large number of passive members in online brand communities has become a roadblock in the success of the community that can be overcome through their active participation in the online communities. In a bid to address the problem of passive members in virtual brand communities, the authors propose a conceptual framework depicting their participation. The conceptual model is grounded in psychological ownership theory portraying the drivers and outcomes of online brand community participation of passive members. A descriptive research design is adopted and the model is tested with data collected from 221 passive members through an online survey in India, with the help of multivariate analysis techniques. The results of the study reveal that a carefully instilled sense of individual psychological ownership and a sense of collective psychological ownership in the community can facilitate passive members' intention to participate in online brand communities. Passive members' participation can further stimulate their brand purchase intention and word-of-mouth about the community. The study contributes to the literature focusing on customer participation in online brand communities and offers important implications for the brand managers. It will permit them to optimize the potential of online communities by devising strategies to stimulate a sense of individual, as well as a collective sense of ownership to stimulate the participation of passive members.