Sebati, Kananelo Kelello2019-11-152019-11-152019Sebati, Kananelo Kelello. (2019). The influence of online brand communities on consumer engagement and brand loyalty :an emerging market perspective. University of the Witwatersrand. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/28457https://hdl.handle.net/10539/28457Graduate School of Business Administration University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters in Management in the Field of Strategic Marketing degree.Online brand communities are a recent phenomenon which have become an area of interest in marketing science and practice. There is currently limited research that informs marketing science and practice related to online brand communities in emerging markets. The consumption experience in emerging markets has at times mirrored that of the high income communities, but is also recognised as being divergent from what is currently understood in literature. The research aimed to understand how brand communities operating on Facebook influence consumer engagement and brand loyalty. This was done acknowledging the influence that consumer-brand identification has on motivations to belong to a group. Surveying members of automotive brand communities based in South Africa enabled the data collected to provide insights into an emerging market brand community. Data was tested for reliability, validity and overall model fit using path analysiss and structural equation modelling. Results found that while there is a significant relationship between brand community membership, consumer engagement and brand loyalty; consumer brand identification has little influence on membership to a brand community. Keywords: Brand Loyalty, Consumer Brand Identification, Consumer Engagement, Online Brand CommunitiesOnline resource (134 leaves)enBrand choice--South AfricaBrand name products--South AfricaConsumer behavior--South AfricaThesis