Customer–Organization Relationships: Development and Test of a Theory of Extended Identities

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CustomerOrganization Relationships:Development and Test of a Theory of Extended Identities

Richard P. BagozziUniversity of Michigan

Massimo Bergami, Gian Luca Marzocchi,and Gabriele Morandin

University of Bologna

We develop a theory of personal, relational, and collective identities that links organizations and

consumers. Four targets of identity are studied: small friendship groups of aficionados of Ducati

motorcycles, virtual communities centered on Ducatis, the Ducati brand, and Ducati the company. The

interplay amongst the identities is shown to order affective, cognitive, and evaluative reactions toward

each target. Hypotheses are tested on a sample of 210 Ducati aficionados, and implications of these

multiple, extended identities for organizations are examined.

Keywords: personal identity, relational identity, collective identity, multiple and extended identities,

organizationstakeholder relationships

Brief and Bazerman (2003, p. 187) suggested that the study of

management and organizations has been handicapped by a dom-

inant ideological orientation: Research in the service of manage-

ment. Likewise, consumer research by marketers has tended to

investigate how consumers make decisions so as to better design

products, pricing, persuasive communication, and distribution sys-

tems to meet the needs of firms (e.g., D. A. Aaker, 2002). Al-

though organization researchers and marketing researchers directly

add value to firms, what is missing is research linking organiza-

tions and consumers in a way showing how value is more formally

added to both organizations and consumers (Brief & Bazerman,

2003). An important question for research is how both consumers

and managers cooperate with and influence each other to meet

individual and mutual needs. In other words, how can organiza-

tions better incorporate consumers into their decision-making pro-

cesses and vice versa?

The present study draws upon multiple literatures on personal,

relational, and collective identities to investigate one way that

consumers and organizations are linked and how both consumers

and managers cooperate with and influence each others identities.

Although a number of useful concepts have been proposed con-

cerning the self and multiple identities, which we build upon

herein (e.g., social identity orientation, Brickson, 2000, 2005;

self-schemas, Markus & Wurf, 1987; extension of self to social

entities, Glynn, 1998; the self-concept and affinity identification,

Pratt, 1998; extended selves and symbols as language, Pratt &Rafaeli, 2001), most of prior research has looked at multiple selves

in nonorganizational senses or multiple identities within organiza-

tions. A need exists for considering multiple identities linking

consumers to organizations. But because this has not been done

before, and because the theories we draw upon were derived for

different but related purposes, it is necessary to adapt recent

developments in social identity theory to derive a new framework.

The new framework explains how patterns of social identity ori-

entations function between consumers and organizations and how

these identities influence behaviors and outcomes important to

organizations.

In this article, we investigate two qualities of the nature of

multiple, extended relationships between consumers and organi-

zations. First, we consider the structure of such relationships.

Second, we examine implications of extended relationships for

organizations. Before discussing these two topics, we present a

framework for thinking about organization consumer linkages.

OrganizationConsumer Linkages

First consider how consumers and organizations are intercon-

nected. Figure 1 shows that consumers and companies are con-

nected through multiple extended relationships. An individual

consumer might participate in a small friendship group organized

around a particular brand. In our study, we explore aficionados of

Ducati motorcycles who experience ownership and use of Ducatis

in small groups of close friends. The ties here are obviously

interpersonal and direct, where the branded motorcycle provides

the venue and means for acting in and with the group.

Members of Ducati friendship groups also participate individu-

ally in virtual communities now and then. A virtual brand com-

munity is defined herein as a specialized, non-geographically

bound community, based on a structured set of social relationships

among admirers of a brand (Muniz & OGuinn, 2001, p. 412).

Unlike the small friendship group, where contact is face to face,

ties in a virtual brand community are indirect in the sense of being

mediated online or through some other impersonal medium. In our

study, the branded Ducati motorcycle is the common topic of

conversation in virtual communities, but members of a virtual

Ducati community do not come together physically and do not

This article was published Online First July 18, 2011.

Richard P. Bagozzi, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan;

Massimo Bergami, Gian Luca Marzocchi, and Gabriele Morandin, Depart-

ment of Management, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Richard

P. Bagozzi, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, 701 Tappan

Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1234. E-mail: [email protected]

Journal of Applied Psychology 2011 American Psychological Association2012, Vol. 97, No. 1, 6376 0021-9010/11/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0024533

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jointly engage in embodied activities centered on their Ducatis.

Rather, individuals in virtual communities pose questions and give

advice over the Internet to strangers to gain or provide knowledge

about Ducati motorcycles and their ownership and use.

Members of small aficionado groups and virtual communitiesare further linked to brands through symbolic ties. Here personal

meaning arises through the cultural, psychological, and social

significance that a brand affords. Finally, consumers may also

experience symbolic ties with an organization in the form of

perceived company image or reputation, although the distinction

between brand and company varies, depending on the nature of the

product, company, and consumer perceiver.

With this as background, we claim that a two-way direction of

cooperation and influence occurs between consumers and firms. In

small groups of aficionados and in virtual communities, Ducatisti

(a name used by both the manufacturer and aficionados to char-

acterize owners of Ducati bikes) perform roles that promote the

purchase and use of Ducati bikes, thereby assuming functions

traditionally done by the organization. For example, small-group

organized aficionados search for and disseminate information on

the functioning, maintenance, and repair of their motorcycles.

They build a shared identity centered on the brand, discuss cus-

tomization issues together, and engage in highly visible joint

activities (e.g., rallies, organized rides, philanthropic events, and

shopping excursions) that display their Ducati identities and the

physical product to the public and thus promote the brand.

Virtual community members also function as promoters of

Ducati and serve as nonpaid advocates, primarily through provid-

ing information and advice for neophytes or long-time owners in

personal ways and with a sense of caring, at times even altruism,

and credibility, not possible via official corporate venues. Virtual

communities also go beyond altruistic and instrumental ties to

include involvement in chat groups and other computer-mediated

discussions, which function as conduits of personal expression,

give-and-take, and shared consciousness building centered on thebrand.

Consumers socially construct their experiences around the

Ducati product and brand through membership in aficionado

groups and virtual communities. Corporate Ducati can participate

in such processes by purposively managing its activities to foster

the adoption and use of its products in what Scott and Lane (2000)

termed organization identity construction. One way that Ducati

and other companies do this is through the creation of brandfests.

Brandfests are corporate-sponsored events provided primarily for

the benefit of current customers (McAlexander & Schouten,

1998, p. 379). Such events can be enormous in size: Each year,

Ducatisti gather en masse of upwards of 45,000 people in Italy, for

example. One ethnography found that participation in such brand-

intensive galas often leads consumers to extraordinary and mem-

orable experiences with the brandexperiences that become vir-

tual watersheds of attitude change and purchase intention

(McAlexander & Schouten, 1998, p. 378).

Organizations create identity construction through other mech-

anisms as well. Harley-Davidson, for example, sponsors Harley

Owners Groups (HOGs for short) where the corporation encour-

ages local clubs (chapters) of Harley owners. A typical club might

have 500 members and meet monthly at a local Harley dealership,

which receives support from the corporation to conduct such

activities. Some Harley dealers also provide new purchasers of its

bikes with a free 1-year membership in the local club. Still another

Figure 1. Social identity as extended relationships of self to meaningful groups and objects.

64 BAGOZZI, BERGAMI, MARZOCCHI, AND MORANDIN


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tactic done by Harley to create organization identification is its

POT program (Primary Officers Training). Here Harley sponsors

2-day leadership workshops and provides extensive training ma-

terials for officers of the HOGs (e.g., for directors, assistant

directors, treasurers, secretaries, sergeants-of-arms, Ladies of Har-

ley officers, road captains, safety officers, and activities chairper-

sons).Organization efforts to promote identification with their brands

and companies through brandfests and other activities not only

facilitate these intended objectives but feed back to the organiza-

tion in multiple ways. Social bonds among participants in orga-

nized activities lead to greater trust in corporations and brands

(Tyler, 2001). That is, to the extent that people experience a sense

of benevolence and caring from organizations and their agents and

learn about admirable attributes of an organizations products,

practices, warranties, service, handling of complaints, and so forth,

they should develop confidence and positive expectations about

future interactions with the organization concerning product qual-

ity, performance, and other aspects of an organizations offerings

and relationships with consumers.

Trust, in turn, should lead to greater commitment. As consumers

come to trust that organizations care for their interests and will be

motivated to act toward them accordingly, they should be willing

to take risks and make commitments of loyalty and support toward

the organization to a greater extent (Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Tyler,

2001). It can be seen that efforts taken by managers of organiza-

tions to build identification with its consumers, conceived as

stakeholders to cultivate, lead to a kind of reciprocity of exchange

based on common interests. Such possibilities have been suggested

by organization researchers as ways of (a) bringing in consumers

so as to adopt a consumer orientation to the study of management

and organizations (Brief & Bazerman, 2003, p. 187), (b) moving

away from employees versus customers . . . and moving toward

a more fine-grained approach that emphasizes the unique charac-teristics of individualorganizational relationships (Cardador &

Pratt, 2006, p. 174), and (c) examining organizational identity in

the broader context of stakeholder relationships (Scott & Lane,

2000, p. 59).

The Structure of Multiple Extended Relationships

Do unique, extended relationships exist between consumers and

organizations? We claim that distinct extended relationships are

produced by the interplay between three fundamental ways that

people relate to each other and to objects that are meaningful to

them. Consider first the notion of social identity.

Brewer (1991) conceived of the social self through different

levels of distinctiveness and inclusiveness, which she represented

through a series of concentric circles. At the center was personal

identity (i.e., those characteristics that differentiate one individual

from others within a given social context; Brewer, 1991, p. 476).

Ones personal identity is thought to exhibit the highest degree of

distinctiveness and the lowest degree of inclusiveness of the mul-

tiple identities one might have. Radiating out from personal iden-

tity are ones social identities. Social identities are categorizations

of the self into more inclusive social units that depersonalize the

self-concept, where Ibecomes we (Brewer, 1991, p. 476, empha-

sis in the original). As Turner, Hogg, Oakes, and Reicher (1987, p.

50) described it, social identity results in a shift toward the

perception of self as an interchangeable exemplar of some social

category and away from the perception of self as a unique person.

Sluss and Ashforth (2007) proposed a complementary perspec-

tive on social identity of persons in organizations that is based on

role relationships. They defined relational identification as the

extent to which one defines oneself in terms of a given role-

relationship (Sluss & Ashforth, 2007, p. 11) and specified twoaspects of relational identities that exist for each person in a role

relationship (e.g., for both supervisor and subordinate). One of

these is the role-based identity, that is, the goals, values, beliefs,

norms, interaction styles, and time horizons typically associated

with the role, whereas the second is the person-based identity,

namely, the personal qualities of the role occupant that bear on

the enactment of the role-based identity (Sluss & Ashforth, 2007,

pp. 1112). In our research context where small-group member

aficionados occupy relatively egalitarian roles, role-based identi-

ties function to the extent that members see each other as mutual

experiencers of Ducati activities and ambassadors for the brand,

and person-based identities function to the degree that pride,

friendship, and other personal attributes reinforce small-group

identity.

There is a third sense of social identity beyond that found in

identification with membership in a group or in a role-relationship:

namely, identification with an idea, object, or person that has

relevance for ones social or relational identities. Obviously ideas,

objects, or persons (e.g., celebrity sponsors) can be different from

groups within which one is a member and role relationships with

persons in the group. By identifying with an idea, object, or

person, an individual in a sense wishes to be like or even in a

certain way become the idea, object, or person. Identification

with an idea, object, or person can also be used by a person to build

or maintain social identities or interpersonal relationships and

achieve goals with like-minded group members. Somewhat anal-

ogous to how people incorporate the identities of other persons andorganizations into their own identities, we claim that consumers

incorporate the identities of objects of organizations (e.g., a brand)

into their own identities as well. This can be used to foster a

personal identity that functions in a dual role: One is to create

personal distinctiveness and stand out from nonmembers and

members of rival groups; a second is to express ones common

identity to Ducatisti in general and members of ones small friend-

ship group built around Ducati in particular, so as to reinforce

solidarity and fit in better.

Extended Identities in Small-Group-Based

Communities

We expect that Ducati aficionados will demonstrate a high

degree of felt inclusiveness with the small group of friends with

whom they regularly interact. Qualitative interviews with Ducati

aficionados revealed that the number and intensity of interactions

with members of their small friendship groups are frequent, highly

involving, and centered on their relationship to their Ducatis.

Typical members report meeting together at least weekly, often

multiple times a week, in taverns and restaurants, at motorcycle

retail stores, in group rides and larger organized gatherings (e.g.,

corporate sponsored rallies), in spontaneous assemblies (e.g., po-

litical events, charity fund raising, volunteer activities), and in joint

trips to recreational and sporting events. Indeed, many members

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were single, married with no children, or empty nesters and re-

ported that their small group was family to them and the most

important part of their everyday lives. Over the course of inter-

views, dominant values were voiced as to feelings of liberation and

comradery, a shared Ducatisti image, and how they were superior

to riders of other brands; they also proudly displayed paraphernalia

and other symbols of identification with Ducati (e.g., wearingbranded clothing) and often watched Ducati-sponsored interna-

tional motorcycle events together on television. These behaviors

are similar to those uncovered by Schouten and McAlexander

(1995) in their study of subcultures of consumption with Harley-

Davidson motorcycle owners. Further, our interviews with

Ducatisti disclosed strong feelings of consciousness of kind (i.e.,

the intrinsic connection that members feel toward one another,

and the collective sense of difference from others outside the

group; Muniz & OGuinn, 2001, p. 413) and distinctive rituals and

traditions tied to group identity (e.g., giving such greetings as

waving or beeping ones horn when passing other Ducati riders,

bragging about ones knowledge of the history and technical

features of Ducatis and using this in friendly competitive discus-

sions, and sharing stories and personal narratives of ones owner-

ship and mutual exploits, as well as apocryphal lore about Ducati

riders, races, and company deeds).

Extended Identities in Virtual Communities

For members of Ducati virtual communities, we expect less felt

inclusiveness than for small friendship group membership. Be-

cause interactions are mediated rather than face-to-face and are

less frequent, intense, and involving in virtual community versus

small-group participation, feelings of inclusiveness should be rel-

atively depressed. Nevertheless, feelings of inclusiveness can be

salient. In addition to a shared consciousness (expressed as a sense

of we-ness), Muniz and OGuinn (2001) found that virtualcommunity members who were organized around the Ford Bronco,

Macintosh computers, and Saab automobiles displayed a strong

cognizance of shared moral responsibilities to members of the

community. This was manifest in our study through feelings that

participation in the virtual community contributed to the long-term

survival of the Ducati brand and community, facilitated the inte-

gration and retention of members in the virtual community, and

fulfilled a sense of duty to assist others in the experience and use

of the Ducati motorcycle. Interlacing such felt responsibilities

were pride and consciousness of doing all this voluntarily without

remuneration. Indeed, altruistic sentiments were mentioned by

interviewees when they functioned both as recipients and givers of

advice in virtual communities. This of course is another instance of

nonpaid promotion of the organizations goods.

Extended Identities in ConsumerBrand Relationships

Feelings of inclusiveness in small groups of aficionados and

virtual communities entail social inclusiveness and express per-

sonal modes of interdependence with other persons. In both the

small-group and virtual community relational and collective ori-

entations are salient, whereas personal identity is less salient and

even depersonalized (Turner et al., 1987). In terms of Bricksons

(2000) notion of identity orientation, both relational role orienta-

tions to friends and collective orientations to the small group of

aficionados are primary, and personal identity orientations, while

salient, are secondarywhereas for the virtual community, dyadic

relational orientations are primary, and collective orientations to

the community are relatively secondary. For the cases where the

brand and company are targets of relationships for individuals who

are not members of the Ducati organization, inclusiveness is an

important mechanism, too, but here social inclusiveness is muted,if it exists at all, and personal inclusiveness between a consumer

and brand and consumer and company is the important mechanism

binding consumer and organization. By personal inclusiveness, we

mean the consumer builds a unique individual identity based, in

part, on assimilating qualities or values of the brand and company.

Likewise, rather than experiencing interdependencies with other

persons, it is the connection of the person to brand and company,

experienced as an independent-based self (Markus & Kitayama,

1991) or personal identity orientation (Brickson, 2000), that is the

basis of such relationships. That is, one sees ownership and display

of ones Ducati as ways to stand out or differentiate oneself from

others, especially nonowners. Here the basic social motivation is

self-interest (Brickson, 2000).

Looking first at the consumerbrand relationship, we suggest

that two psychological processes undergird this connection. First,

consumers come to see the brand as a personal possession and

extension of the personal self (e.g., Belk, 1988). William James

(1890, p. 291) recognized this early on when he noted, a mans

Self is the sum total of all that he CAN call his, not only his body

and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and

children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his

lands, and yacht and bank-account. McClelland (1951) proposed,

and Prelinger (1959) largely confirmed empirically, that the self is

connected in decreasing order to me (a sense of free will), bodily

parts, psychological and intraorganismic processes, personal attri-

butes, possessions, abstract ideas, other people, and nonowned

objects in the close physical environment. We suggest that a brandin one sense reflects phenomenologically a combination of pos-

session and abstract idea, yet exists in ones close physical envi-

ronment.

Belk (1988) provided evidence that possessions are reminders

and confirmers of our personal identities and symbolically extend

the self through enhancement of a personal sense of power. Fol-

lowing Sartre (1956), objects become a part of the self to the extent

that they are appropriated for personal use, created or altered for

ones purposes, or incorporated into ones knowledge system.

Social status is frequently enhanced through possession of certain

brands. Interviews with Ducatisti revealed that ownership of

Ducati motorcycles was expressed in very personal terms as part

of me, was frequently personalized through customization, and

was infused with a vocabulary conveying considerable technical

and personal knowledge. At the same time, interviewees displayed

many aspects of the extended self as connected to the brand by

making self-references to being Ducatisti, making associations

between their self-esteem and the Ducati brand, mentioning feel-

ings of loss or anomie when separated from their Ducatis, invest-

ing themselves in or giving of themselves to their motorcycles,

mastering skills and knowledge of Ducati, feeling connected to the

past and recent successes of the brand and longing for future

involvement, and even passing on their older or future Ducatis to

family members and friends, and being members of an elite class

and envied by others.



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Extended Identities in ConsumerOrganization

Relationships

A second psychological process grounding the consumerbrand

relationship can be seen in how owners view the Ducati brand as

a partner. Although a brand may literally not exist physically at all,

but consists of images in the minds of consumers, it can come tobe conceived in relationship terms similar to that experienced by

people with celebrities or with their God, whom they may never

actually encounter (e.g., Fournier, 1998). J. L. Aaker (1997)

showed that people assign personality qualities to inanimate

brands. Ducati riders often mentioned that their Ducatis were

temperamental, tired, or full of energy. Indeed, some re-

spondents anthropomorphized their Ducati as a living character

(e.g., my thoroughbred, a special friend, my temptress).

Overall, it is clear that owners feel a special bond with the brand

itself such that the relationship added meaning and structure to

their lives: The brand excited them, filled a void in their lives, was

a source of pride and comfort, became an intimate part of their life

narratives, and elicited loyalty. In sum, the Ducati brand was

included in the personal identity of consumers, and at the same

time owners extended it by manner of personal expression and

purposive connection to others in the small aficionado group and

virtual brand community and in relation to others with whom they

compared and distanced themselves from so as to feel special or

superior.

The consumercompany relationship shows similar qualities

but to a lesser extent. This is because, unlike a brand and its

focused, personalized images, a company is an impersonal object

with vague, multiple foci in the minds of consumers. Yet some

feeling of connection and limited bond of inclusiveness should be

experienced because the company is the originator of the valued

brand and physical product.

Hypotheses

In our study, we represent the nature of the reactions to the four

targets of individualorganization relationships with affective,

cognitive, and evaluative reactions. For the group targetsthe

small group of aficionados and the virtual communitythe three

reactions are drawn directly from the social identity literature (e.g.,

Bergami & Bagozzi, 2000; Ellemers, Kortekaas, & Ouwerkerk,

1999). That is, affect here refers to emotional bonds with the two

groups (also known as affective commitment), cognitions refer to

the perceived overlap between ones own and the groups image

(also termed self-awareness of group membership), and evalua-

tions connote the importance of group membership (also known ascollective or group-based self-esteem). This conceptualization is

consistent with Tajfels (1978) classic interpretation of social

identity. Although the cognitive component is often thought to

form first in the development of social identity and then to influ-

ence the affective and evaluative components over time, we con-

ceive of all three components converging as indicators of an

overall identity response because we investigate respondents who

already have an established social identity to different degrees. We

also investigate affective, cognitive, and evaluative reactions to the

brand and company. But here of course the identity is more

personal and reflective of the self in relation to symbolic objects.

To answer the question of whether unique, extended relation-

ships exist between consumers and organizations, we test the

following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 1: Consumers express distinct affective, cogni-

tive, and evaluative reactions to each of the four targets of

identity: small group aficionados, virtual community, brandDucati, and Ducati, Inc.

We also expect a specific ordering amongst affective, cognitive,

and evaluative responses across the four targets, where the order-

ing is manifest in overall intensity of reactions, which are mean-

level responses, and in the distance between responses across

targets, which are linear, slope relationships (i.e., a simplex pattern

is expected; e.g., Jreskog, 1970). The ordering is based on the

interplay between degree of social inclusiveness and person

object inclusiveness as these exist in identity orientations toward

the four targets. In particular, we propose that a double gradient

exists going in opposite directions such that social inclusiveness

declines from high to low, and personal inclusiveness increases

from low to high, as one goes from small group aficionados, tovirtual community, to brand Ducati, to Ducati, Inc. (see Table 1).

Social inclusiveness for consumers who are nonorganizational

members should be highest for the small group of aficionados

because both relational and collective identity orientations to

group members and the group predominate. We have indicated this

in Table 1 as for relational identity and for collective

identity to qualitatively suggest very high and high levels of affect,

cognitions, and evaluations, respectively, toward the small group

of friends. Here the basic social motivations (Brickson, 2000) are

twofold: others benefits for relational-based identities with group

members and collective welfare for group-based identity.

Relatively lower levels of affect, cognitions, and evaluations are

expected for the virtual community, where relational identity ori-entation is primarily dyadic, but mediated, between the focal

person and other virtual community members (hence, to

contrast with the for the small group, where interpersonal

relations are face-to-face and closer in personalness), and collec-

tive identity orientation is moderate, , reflecting the less intense

and tangible aspects of the virtual community relative to the small

group of friends. Here the basic social motivations are providing

benefit to another virtual community member to whom one gives

advice and promoting the overall welfare of the virtual community.

We attribute very low levels of individual identity orientation to

the small group of friends and virtual community and designate

these with 0 in Table 1. In a parallel fashion, we suggest that the

social inclusiveness felt in person object relationships for the

brand is moderate (designated in Table 1) because, whilerelating individually to the brand, consumers do so in part to stand

out from non-brand owners and to fit in with brand owners,

whereas social inclusiveness for the company is very low (and

therefore designated 0 in Table 1) because the company name

and image supply little basis for interpersonal comparisons.

Personal inclusiveness should be highest for the brand. Here the

identity orientation is personal (Brickson, 2000) in the sense that

qualities of the brand are embraced and assimilated; the basic

social motivation is self-interest, where we designate the magni-

tude of personal identity orientation as high, in Table 1. By

contrast, personal inclusiveness for the company is designated as



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moderate, , to indicate a relatively lower level of self-definition

than that found through the brand.

In sum, the net qualitative intensity of felt affect, cognitions, and

evaluations for the four targets in Table 1 is anticipated to be

for the small group of aficionados, for the virtual

community, for the brand, and for the company. Hence,

we hypothesize:

Hypothesis 2: The highest levels of affect, cognitions, and

evaluations occur for small group aficionados, lowest for

Ducati, Inc., and intermediate for virtual community and

brand Ducati.

Hypothesis 3: A gradient of psychological distance exists

from small group aficionados, to virtual community, to

Ducati brand, to Ducati, Inc. (see Figure 2).

Hypothesis 2 implies ordered differences in the mean levels of

affect, cognitions, and evaluations and can be tested by t tests.

Hypothesis 3 implies ordered dependencies amongst affect, cog-

nitions, and evaluations across targets, expressed as a gradient ofslope effects, and can be tested with first-order, autoregressive

equations according to a simplex model (Jreskog, 1970).

Implications of ConsumerOrganization Connections

We investigate decisions, action tendencies, and behaviors con-

sumers perform directly in relationship to the organization itself.

We hypothesize that such performances reflect social exchange

relationships between consumers and company, yet are influenced

by consumerorganization connections. Because affect, cogni-

tions, and evaluations toward the Ducati company itself are closest

to actual commercial exchanges, compared with the other

consumerorganization connections, we hypothesize that these

reactions will directly influence commercial decisions, action ten-dencies, and behaviors of consumers. Consumers conceive of

commercial relationships as occurring with the company, not with

the other consumer organization relationships. Affect, cognitions,

and evaluations toward the other consumer organization connec-

tionsthe small group of Ducati aficionados, the Ducati virtual

community, and the Ducati brandare hypothesized to influence

decisions, action tendencies, and behaviors indirectly through the

consumercompany relationship. We expect the order of influence

here to follow the gradient predicted in Hypothesis 3. Thus,

Hypothesis 4: Decisions, action tendencies, and behaviors

will be a direct function of affect, cognitions, and evaluations

toward Ducati, Inc. and an indirect function in decreasing

order from Ducati brand, virtual community, and small group

aficionados (see Figure 3).

We investigate five decisions, action tendencies, and behaviors

of direct interest to Ducati the company. Four of these are adap-

tations studied by Ahearne, Bhattacharya, and Grues (2005): pro-

viding feedback to the company when errors, omissions, or prob-

lems arise; maintaining support of the company in the face of

mistakes it makes or attacks it faces; giving positive word of

mouth (social promotion) of the company and its products; and

attempting to get people to actually investigate, try, or purchase

products of the company (action promotion). The fifth response ofTa

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Ducatisti is the intention to participate in activities sponsored by

Ducati (see Method section).

Method

Sample and Procedure

Respondents were 210 owners of Ducati motorcycles who

ranged in age from 16 to 63 years old (M 30.4). Most respon-

dents (89.5%) were men. With regard to occupational background,

32.2% were office workers, 23.5% blue-collar workers, 22.1%

entrepreneurs/self-employed, 12.9% students, 4.5% pensioners,

and 4.8% other. Most respondents were residents throughout

Italy (95.7%), the remaining across Europe. All participated in

small friendship groups centered around ownership and use of

Ducati motorcycles.

People attending the WorldDucatiWeek, a biannual brandfest

held at the Misano World Circuit in Rimini, Italy, were approached

at random by one of eight face-to-face interviewers who adminis-

tered the questionnaires. Interviewers were instructed to approach

attendees throughout the physical venue over the course of a full

day of activities. The brandfest was attended by more than 45,000

people who could participate in such brandfest activities as tech-

nical demonstrations (e.g., seminars by Ducati engineers on how

specific components of bikes function), sponsored entertainment

(e.g., acrobatic and extreme ways of riding bikes), and social

activities (e.g., eating and drinking together, meeting with people

to share experiences). Only respondents who owned a Ducati

motorcycle and who also indicated that they were part of a small

friendship group of Ducati owners were interviewed. Respondents

who worked for or were in any formal way affiliated with Ducati

were excluded. Of all people asked to participate in the study, very

few people refused to respond.

Measures

Social and personal identity. For each target (small group,

virtual community, brand, company), cognitive, affective, and

evaluative dimensions of identity were measured. The cognitive

component was measured by two items: The first one consists of

an 8-point visual and verbal representation of ones perceived

overlap between ones self-identity and identity of the [target],

while the second item instructed participants to indicate the

degree to which your self-image overlaps with the identity of the

[target] as you perceive it and used a 5-point scale (Bergami &

Bagozzi, 2000). Affective social identity was measured by two

7-point items: How attachedare you to the [target]? and How

strong would you say your feelings of belongingness are toward

the [target]? and used a 7-point scale (Bagozzi & Lee, 2002).

Evaluative social identity was measured using two 7-point items:

I am a valuable member of the [target] and I am an important

member of the [target] (e.g., Crocker & Luthanen, 1990).

Past behavior and intentions to participate. People were

asked to express how often they attended such Ducati-related

activities in the previous 2 months as Participating in activities

promoted by a Ducati club, Participating in initiatives organized

by Ducati, and Surfing www.ducati.com. A six-item scale with

7 points anchored by never and very frequently was used. Inten-

Figure 2. Simplex model for testing psychological distance across extended selves. Correlated errors amongst

like measures across targets are omitted for simplicity.



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tions to participate in Ducati motorcycle activities were measured

with a similar six-item scale as used for past behavior, but in this

case the questions were introduced by the following statement:

How often do you intend to participate in the activities presented

below within the next two months?

Actions and action tendencies. These are behaviors or felturges to act in ways that benefit Ducati. We operationalized

general suggestions made by Bhattacharya and Sen (2003) in their

conceptual article on company relationships with customers (see

also Ahearne et al., 2005). Tendencies to provide feedback to the

company were measured with four items on a 7-point does not

describe me at all to describes me completely scale. An example

item is As a customer I have the right to inform Ducati of possible

areas for improvement. Resilience to negative information was

measured with five items on the same 7-point scale used for

tendencies to provide feedback. An example item is I always

forgive Ducati when she makes mistakes. Social promotion was

measured by seven items on the same 7-point scale as mentioned

above. An example is I often speak in positive ways about Ducatiand its motorbikes. Action promotion was measured with three

items also on the 7-point scale described above. An example is I

try to convince my friends and acquaintances to buy Ducati mo-

torcycles and related products.

Analytical Procedures

To test the hierarchical nature of nested identities, in the sense

of psychological distance between the ordered identities, we used

structural equation models (SEMs) to implement a simplex model.

Figure 2 presents the simplex model where the hypothesized

gradient from small group, to virtual community, to brand, to

company is represented through the connections between latent

variables in the center of the diagram from left to right. These

latent variables are second-order factors, with each linked to three

first-order factors corresponding to cognitive, affective, and eval-

uative identities for the respective targets of identity. Each first-

order factor is indicated with two items, as mentioned above.The key parameters of interest (51, 95, and 13,9) capture the

psychological distance across the four targets of identity and are

corrected for attenuation due to measurement error in the indi-

vidual items. The model in Figure 2 tests the hypothesis of

psychological distance developed above, and thus a satisfactory

statistical fit is necessary to sustain the hypothesis. Although 12

possible unique orderings amongst the four targets of identity

are possible, only the order shown in Figure 2 is consistent with

hypotheses. Nevertheless, for purposes of comparison, we test

and compare all 12 possible orderings, which are reported in the

Results section.

To test for the behavioral implications of extended identities, we

used a SEM with the hypothesized nested identities predictingparticipation intentions and the four altruistic actions and action

tendencies. Figure 3 shows the SEM for doing this. Various rival

hypotheses of mediation are investigated, as described in the

Results section. LISREL was used for all analyses.

Results

Reliability

Table 2 presents information on reliabilities for all constructs.

For the two-item constructs, the correlations between pairs of

.33**

Tendency to

provide feedback

to companyR

2= .14

Resilience to

negave

informaonR

2= .25

Social promoon

R2

= .52

Acon promoon

R2

= .26

Parcipaon

intenons

R2

= .67

Small

group

R2

= .19

Network

R2

= .33

Brand

R2

= .71

Company

R2

= .55

Past

parcipaon

.22 .83** .71**

.44**.02

.07

.31**

.30**

.75**

.10

.08

.45**

.54**

.31**

.14*

.44**

*

Figure 3. Results for testing the effects of identity on intentions to participate in Ducati motorcycle activities

and on altruistic action tendencies benefitting the company and customers, with past participation controlled.

Measures, factor loadings, and error variances and covariances are omitted for clarity; see Figure 2 for

measurement relations; standardized parameter estimates are presented for simplicity. p .01. p .001.



9/14

items ranged from .81 to .94. For the constructs with more than

two items, the generalized alphas ranged from .80 to .86. Overall

the measures of constructs achieved satisfactory reliabilities for all

18 constructs investigated in this study.

Psychological Distance Across Extended Selves

The model in Figure 2 fit the data satisfactorily: 2(203)

448.24, p .00, root-mean-square error of approximation

(RMSEA) .08, p value for test of close fit .00, nonnormed fit

index (NNFI) .97, comparative fit index (CFI) .98, and

standardized root-mean-square residual (SRMR) .08. The mid-dle panel of Table 3 presents factor loadings and error variances,

where it can be seen that first-order and second-order loadings are

high in value (yielding averages of .90 and .85, respectively) and

corresponding error variances are low in value (with averages of

.17 and .27, respectively). The top panel in Table 3 shows the

psychological distances between identity targets. Small-group and

virtual community identities are moderately close to each other

(51 .47), virtual community and brand identities are very close

to each other (95 .88), and brand and company identities are

also relatively close to each other (13,9 .67). Reflective of the

magnitudes of psychological distance, the explained variances for

virtual community, brand, and company social identities are, re-

spectively, .22, .78, and .45, as a function of the hypothesized

immediately preceding identity in the identity extension model.Figure 2 shows the hypothesis that the four identity targets are

ordered from small group, to virtual community, to brand, to

company. As indicated above, we cannot reject this hypothesis.

Nevertheless, we also tested rival hypotheses. The rival hypotheses

look at all possible unique orderings amongst the four targets.

There are 12 distinct orderings, where Figure 2 represents one of

these. Eight of the 11 rival models failed to fit the data satisfac-

torily, whereas the three others that did fit satisfactorily were

Table 2

Internal Consistency of Measures

ConstructNumber ofmeasures r

(generalizedalpha)

Small group cognitive social identity 2 .88

Small group affective social identity 2 .88Small group evaluative social identity 2 .87Virtual community cognitive social

identity 2 .81Virtual community affective social

identity 2 .83Virtual community evaluative social

identity 2 .86Brand cognitive social identity 2 .81Brand affective social identity 2 .84Brand evaluative social identity 2 .91Company cognitive social identity 2 .89Company affective social identity 2 .94Company evaluative social identity 2 .94Past behavior 6 .80Participation intentions 6 .83Tendency to provide feedback 4 .86

Resilience to negative information 5 .81Action promotion 3 .86Social promotion 7 .85

Table 3

Standardized Parameter Estimates for Simplex Model (See Figure 3)

Psychological distance:

VariableFirst-order

factor loadings Error variancesSecond-order

factor loadings Error variances

Small groupCognitive .87, .90 .23, .20 .89 .20Affective .92, .96 .15, .08 .92 .16Evaluative .97, .80 .06, .37 .80 .35

Virtual communityCognitive .81, .84 .35, .30 .86 .27Affective .90, .92 .19, .15 .95 .10Evaluative .97, .88 .07, .22 .83 .31

BrandCognitive .78, .87 .39, .24 .81 .34Affective .90, .94 .20, .11 .88 .23Evaluative .94, .96 .11, .08 .80 .36

CompanyCognitive .86, .91 .26, .17 .83 .32Affective .87, .94 .24, .12 .97 .07Evaluative 1.00, .89 .00, .20 .71 .49

Explained variance inVirtual community social identity .22Brand social identity .78Company social identity .45



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inferior to the model shown in Figure 2. Thus the priority of small

group, to virtual community, to brand, to company is the best

representation of psychological distance and is consistent with

hypotheses.

Table 4 presents an intuitive depiction of psychological distance

between the four targets of identity and does so separately for the

cognitive, affective, and evaluative components of each identityfor ease of interpretation. The correlations next to the diagonals

reflect psychological distance between pairs of identity targets

hypothesized to be adjacent to each other. Thus, for example,

small-group and virtual community identities are moderately close

to each other (rs .36, .41, and .31, respectively, for cognitive,

affective, and evaluative components), whereas virtual community

and brand are very close to each other (rs .61, .73, and .58,

respectively, for the components). The distances between brand

and company are intermediate in magnitude to those observed

between small group and virtual community and between virtual

community and brand (i.e., rs .45, .57, and .38, respectively).

An interesting finding to point out is that the correlations system-

atically decline from higher to lower values as one moves away

from the diagonal in each correlation matrix shown in Table 4.

Indeed, there are no exceptions to the gradient of correlations in all

directions. Such a pattern is known as a perfect simplex in the

psychometric literature and confirms the hypothesized ordering of

psychological distance shown in Figure 2.

As final evidence for the hypothesized ordering across target

identities, we examined the structured means of factors corre-

sponding to the identities. If the ordering hypothesized in Figure 2

is correct, then the overall (mean) level of identities should be

highest for small group and systematically decline across the other

three identities until the lowest mean is found for company iden-

tity. Table 5 presents the means for each component of identity

across the four targets. Notice that the means of all three compo-

nents for the small-group identity are statistically larger in mag-nitude than all means for the other identities, as predicted. Like-

wise the means of all three components for company identity are

statistically lower in magnitude than all means for the other iden-

tities, as hypothesized. By contrast, the means between virtual

community and brand identities for the three components are very

close in value, as proposed, except in one case. The exception

occurs for the means of evaluations between the virtual community

and brand, where the latter was statistically larger than the former.

However the difference is relatively small (3.50 vs. 3.73). More-

over, a closer examination of Table 5 reveals that the means of the

affective identities are systematically greater than the means of the

cognitive identities, which in turn are greater than evaluativeidentities. These results are consistent with the idea that the psy-

chological connection community members develop toward each

target is characterized primarily by positive emotional states,

somewhat less so by the overlap in terms of the perceived image

of each target, and least strongly by the evaluative relevance one

perceives oneself to have in each group.

Behavioral Implications of Extended Selves

Figure 3 presents the findings for the consequences of extended

identities on the four actions and on participation intentions, with

extent of past participation in Ducati motorcycle activities held

constant as a control. This model fit the data very well: 2

(112) 217.82, RMSEA .06, p value for test of close fit .07, NNFI

.97, CFI .98, and SRMR .07. As hypothesized, the most distal

identity, identification with the company (Ducati), directly influ-

ences all actions and intentions (except tendency to provide feed-

back to the company), whereas the more proximal identities work

through each other from most proximal identity (small group) to

intermediate identities (virtual community and brand) before

reaching company identity.

Similar to the findings for psychological distance shown in

Table 3, the association between small-group and virtual identities

( .22) is smaller than the association between virtual commu-

nity and brand ( .83) and brand and company ( .71).

Indeed, the model in Figure 3 controls for extent of past partici-

pation, which increases the distance between small group and

virtual community (see .22 in Figure 3 vs. .47 in Table

3 for the model in Figure 2). This results because of the relatively

strong impacts of past participation on both small-group and

virtual community identities ( .44 in both cases). By contrast,

the psychological distances between virtual community and brand

and between brand and company remain high for the model of

Figure 3 (compare .83 and .71, respectively, in Figure 3

to .88 and .67 in Table 3). Here the comparable levels of

psychological distance occur because past participation has non-

significant direct effects on brand and company identities (see

Figure 3).

Table 4

Simplex Patterns of Correlations for Cognitive, Affective, and

Evaluative Factors

Variable 1 2 3 4

Cognitive1. Small group 2. Virtual community .36 3. Brand .30 .61 4. Company .20 .42 .45

Affective1. Small group 2. Virtual community .41 3. Brand .33 .73 4. Company .24 .54 .57

Evaluative1. Small group 2. Virtual community .31 3. Brand .26 .58 4. Company .16 .35 .38

Table 5

Table of Means for Testing Differences Across Targets of

Identities

Psychologicalresponse Small group

Virtualcommunity Brand Company

Cognitive 4.90a

4.61b

4.66b

3.71c

Affective 5.60a 5.10b 5.21b 4.13c

Evaluative 4.84a 3.50b 3.73c 2.56d

Note. Pairs of means within each row with different superscripts arestatistically different at the .05 level of significance or greater.



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The effects of extended selves on actions and intentions occur

directly from company identity and indirectly from the other

identities through company identity, as hypothesized. Company

identity has especially strong effects on resilience to negative

information ( .45) and social promotion ( .54), a moderate

effect on action promotion ( .31), and a relatively weak, yet

significant, effect on intentions ( .14). The latter outcome isapparently a consequence of the high stability between past par-

ticipation and prospective participation ( .75), where the

former referred to actions over 2 months leading up to the survey,

whereas the latter referenced plans for the 2 months following the

survey (see Method section). Overall, relatively high amounts of

explained variance result in social promotion (R2 .52) and

intentions (R2 .67), whereas moderate levels of explained vari-

ance occur for resilience to negative information (R2 .25) and

action promotion (R2 .26). Again, company identity failed to

predict tendencies to provide feedback to the company, yet past

participation predicted these tendencies ( .33), yielding a low

amount of explained variation (R2 .14).

The findings show that extended selves inform and shape ac-

tions and decisions to act toward the company. We next test for

rival hypotheses of direct effects of extended selves, other than

company identity, on behavior and intentions. Small-group, virtual

community, and brand identities could each have direct effects on

the five actions and intentions shown at the right in Figure 3,

making for 15 additional paths to consider. We tested these direct

paths and found that neither small-group nor virtual community

identities had direct effects on actions and intentions: The addition

of the 10 paths implicated here failed to change the goodness of fit

of the model significantly (i.e., d

2[10] 17.83, p .05). Thus

small-group and virtual community identities influence intentions

and actions indirectly according to the hypothesized ordering of

extended identities. By contrast, brand identity had significant

direct effects on resilience to negative information, social promo-tion, action promotion, and participation intentions (i.e.,

d

2[4]

42.89, p .001),but did not significantly affect tendencies to

provide feedback to the company (d

2[1] 0.00, p 1.00).

Explained variances in resilience to negative information, social

promotion, and action promotion increased to .27, .59, and .30,

respectively, whereas explained variance in intentions remained

the same (compare Figure 3).

Threats to Validity

The data were obtained in a cross-section, so strong claims of

causality must be avoided. To address threats to validity, we did

six things. First, as mentioned above, tests of hypotheses were

done by controlling for extent of past behavior, because past

behavior could also explain predictions of the outcomes. The

hypothesized effects of social identity on the outcomes were

sustained, as was the ordering of identities, controlling for past

behavior. Second, also as noted above, we tested for all possible

orderings amongst identities and found that the hypothesized or-

dering, out of a total of 12 possible, received the best support

(eight rival hypotheses failed completely, three were inferior).

Third, as corroborating evidence of the aforementioned hypothe-

sized ordering of identities, which refer to slope parameters, we

examined the structured means of factors and found that 17 of 18

hypotheses were sustained. The one exception was the finding that

the mean for evaluations of the virtual community was less than

that for the brand, where we expected no difference. Nevertheless

the difference in means was small (3.50 vs. 3.73).

A fourth procedure we examined was one recommended by

Podsakoff, Scott, MacKenzie, Lee, and Podsakoff (2003), which

consists of adding a method factor with all indicators loading on it

so as to take into account common method biases. This model fitwell: 2(111) 259.10, RMSEA .077, NNFI .96, CFI .97,

and SRMR .053. Of the 19 method factor loadings, only one

was significant. Importantly, all parameters corresponding to hy-

potheses did not change in sign or significance, thus suggesting

that the presence of method bias, if any, was nonconsequential.

Comparisons of estimates for key parameters between the model

tested in Figure 3 and the same model with a method factor added

show that, under the latter model, four estimates increased, seven

decreased, and four remained the same, but all changes were very

small and again did not entail any differences in sign or signifi-

cance from the primary tests of hypotheses summarized in Fig-

ure 3.

Another test we did to address threats to validity was to consider

violations in the mediation shown in Figure 3. The tests of medi-

ation supported the sequence of relations shown in Figure 3, except

for certain direct effects of brand identity on the behaviors. As the

brand and company images are both somewhat similar abstrac-

tions, we might have expected such an outcome.

Finally we examined the discriminant validity of the measures

of social identity. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we investi-

gated discriminant validity in two ways: by inspection of the

confidence intervals of correlations amongst factors and by d

2 tests

between a model with the correlation fixed to unity and the model

estimating the correlation. Table 6 presents the results. The entries

below the diagonal show the correlations between factors and

standard errors of the estimates. If we compute the confidence

intervals, we see that each falls well below 1.00. The entries abovethe diagonal are the

d

2 values. These should be compared with

2(30) 39.98, p .11, which is the value for the four-factor

model. The d

2 test in each case is highly significant. In sum, the

measures of factors achieve discriminant validity.

Discussion

Our study investigates cooperation and influence between orga-

nizations and their consumers. We examine how identity orienta-

tions in small friendship groups organized around a brand, which

entail both group and interpersonal loci of self-definition, ground

and shape identification and participation in brand-centered virtual

communities, which largely involve dyadic self-definitions, and

Table 6

Correlation Matrix of Factors for Four Social Identities

Social identity 1 2 3 4

1. Small group 222.52 280.88 283.852. Network .43 (.06) 88.38 153.433. Brand .26 (.07) .84 (.03) 118.214. Company .13 (.08) .62 (.05) .68 (.05)

Note. Entries below the diagonal are correlations (standard deviations inparentheses); above are chi-square values with correlations fixed to 1.00.



12/14

how personal identity orientations to the brand and company

undergird individual loci of self-definition, which provide the basis

for social commerce in the small group and virtual community

(e.g., Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Brickson, 2000, 2005). At the

same time, we studied how (a) basic social motivations of self-

interest in personal identity orientations, (b) others benefits in

relational identity orientations, and (c) group welfare in collectiveidentity orientations are transformed through participation in small

group, virtual community, and brand/company object relations to

influence specific actions of nonorganizational members (i.e., con-

sumers).

Organizations and consumers are dependent on each other but

can influence and cooperate with each other in nontraditional

ways. The satisfaction of consumers is not limited to and does not

end with a purchase of products or services from firms. We found

that consumers achieved considerable satisfaction of self-

definition through experiencing social identity in small groups of

aficionados and virtual communities connected to organizations.

Their personal identity, as well, was solidified and extended

through their imagined connections to the brand and company, and

thus not only through use and ownership of the physical product.

In the course of strengthening and elaborating upon their social

identities with close friends and strangers, consumers deepened

their knowledge of and attachments to the products and brand

name of the firm and the firm itself. At the same time, the

organization fosters this development through creation of novel

opportunities for individuals and groups to learn about, and use,

their products. In addition to assuming the roles of promoter and

advocate of the firm and its offerings in their small friendship

group and virtual communities, consumers more directly benefited

the firm by formally providing feedback and resisting negative

information threatening their identities with the brand and com-

pany. They also benefited the company by disseminating positive

word of mouth and persuading others to get to know about thecompany and its products and to ride and even purchase Ducati

motorcycles.

In short, the actions of managers through creation of the orga-

nizations image and communication of their product to consumer

stakeholders led to positive behaviors on the part of consumer

stakeholders beyond purchase of the product that benefited the

company (Scott & Lane, 2000). Our study also showed that this

was not a simple exchange between company and consumer but

rather occurred through rather autonomous and freely chosen ac-

tions of consumers as members of groups connected to the orga-

nization. In acting out membership in their groups, members not

only strengthened their social identities with these groups but

promoted the product, brand, and company, which serve as media

of social identity fulfillment. These social identities were found to

affect personal identities fulfilled through connections to the brand

name and company image. Action tendencies and behaviors that

individual consumers take to benefit the firm were directly linked

to these personal identities and indirectly influenced by the

strength of social identities with the small group of aficionados and

virtual brand communities.

There thus exist complex connections of consumers to organi-

zations. Individual and social needs of consumers are met through

personal and social identity processes with the symbolic image of

the firm and brand and the use of these symbols and experiences

with the physical product, whereas processes of social construction

occur with ones social identity within a key small group and

virtual community outside of, but linked to, the organization. The

organization is part of this process and succeeds or fails to the

extent that it can foster individual and group identity formation and

maintenance.

Practical Implications

The results of our study also suggest implications on how to

encourage participation in activities benefiting organizations by

consumers connected to the organizations in various ways. Know-

ing what is the main group of reference for people permits us to

better understand both the relationships of individuals and com-

munity members with the company and its products and the way

that customers and organizations alike should allocate attention

and resources. This can inform the planning of successful com-

munication strategies for a more satisfying inclusion of individuals

within the company. If companies want to encourage the growth of

brand-related friendship groups, they should not focus so much on

the group as a whole but rather organize activities or social events

promoting the sharing of experiences among fans. It appears that

it is not the small-group-based community itself, in terms of

ongoing identification, that leads to positive outcomes for the

organization (indeed, the objective or salience of these groups

appears to promote friendship and group solidarity and not neces-

sarily commercial imperatives); rather it is a particular contextual

experience that a small group has that transforms their sentiments

into commercial outcomes. Business firms potentially provide

services that facilitate group life over and above the sale of a

product, per se. In doing so, companies contribute to the common

good of subgroups and their members in society, too. Moreover,

the identities nurtured here contribute to company welfare, such as

found in the behaviors we examined as outcomes of the processes.

In addition, our study sheds light on mechanisms linking indi-viduals to business firms and how influence is multidirectional and

mutually beneficial. The different consumerorganization connec-

tions involve customers with the organization in different ways.

Firms have already begun to reorganize themselves to promote

collaborative communities (Heckscher & Adler, 2006). In addi-

tion, engagement of consumers with innovative firms has branched

out to include social innovations (Von Hippel, 2005), which em-

phasize greater involvement by, and transparency toward, custom-

ers. Ideally, cooperation between customers and companies should

yield mutually satisfying outcomes. In this sense, small friendship

groups and virtual brand communities, besides spreading curiosity,

knowledge, and passion for a brand in the market, are important

sources for new ideas and product innovations, whose origins are

not so much traced back to commercial interests, per se, as to

fomenting the desire to share experiences, foster common values,

and improve learning by users. Owners of brands are not so much

isolated consumers but can be organized into and reached via small

friendship groups and virtual communities to better experience

joint outcomes of interest to consumers and organizations alike.

Brief and Bazerman (2003, p. 187) noted that creating true value

for the consumer and, thus, adding value to society is one of the

most obvious ways that business organizations make the world a

better place. In addition, organizations can affect brand and

company reputation, strategically placing company image in the

institutional and social environment, standardizing preferences or



13/14

alternatively catering to unique classes of preferences, and legiti-

mizing products and services, often with greater effectiveness than

that performed through traditional within-company marketing tac-

tics based on mass communication from firm to consumer (Alge-

sheimer & Dholakia, 2006). All these efforts move our thinking

away from atomistic frameworks, where organization and consum-

ers are treated as distinct actors seeking to promote their ownutility through arms-length exchanges between them, toward more

holistic construals where boundaries become permeated and blur,

and social and personal identities of consumers form and adapt

synergistically to organizations and their offerings and vice versa.

We conceive of small friendship groups of aficionados and

virtual brand communities as new forms of organizational mem-

bership (Cardador & Pratt, 2006) that provide products and pro-

mote group and individual behaviors of benefit to the organization

and ultimately society. The emergence of such new organizational

forms will necessarily entail new kinds of human resource man-

agement for study and suggest insights for managers constrained

by arms-length marketing strategies. In addition, the implications

of our study point to opportunities for using social networks and

volunteer-like behaviors of consumers (Pearce, 1983, 1993) who

are open to innovation and characterized by a strong sense of

identification with the company and its products. Consumers in

brand communities to a certain extent function as nonpaid agents

of firms. Our study discloses psychological and social pathways

that managers may use to regulate participation of customers in

activities benefiting the firm and fostering relationships of mutual

benefit to firms and consumers.

Limitations

A limitation of our study is that data were collected via a

cross-sectional research design, potentially inducing effects of

common method variance that might attenuate the theoreticalsignificance of our results (Podsakoff et al., 2003) and make causal

conclusions tenuous. However, as presented in the final section of

the Results, we took six steps to reduce threats to validity. Our

research examined one organization, so caution must be exercised

concerning generalizability until more research is done.

Future Research

Future research should use experimental and longitudinal meth-

ods to examine the relationships we found. With recognition that

brand community members develop affiliation similar in some

senses to that experienced by employees (Cardador & Pratt, 2006),

future research could examine extended identities to learn how

people with consumerorganization connections with multiple or-

ganizations identify with each and with what implications. For

example, employees working in multinational, geographically dis-

persed subsidiaries, or in distributed virtual teams, may develop

complex relationships with the parent company, through multiple

venues affording multiple extended identities.

In addition, future research should investigate the expansion and

contraction of identities in coordination with relevant company

happenings (e.g., the launch of a new product for customer com-

munities, merger processes affecting employees, competitive in-

roads). Changes in organization fortunes, internal happenings, and

offerings likely resonate with, and spread through, brand commu-

nities in unique and impactful ways. The study of such dynamics

may reveal how identities evolve in response to identity threats and

opportunities and suggest how managers might manage their re-

lationships with consumers better.

Finally, managers trying to develop identification processes

among those over whom they lack direct reward-based controls

might find, in brand communities, new mechanisms for influenc-ing consumers and achieving the organizational-related benefits

we studied herein. Brand communities emerge at the boundaries of

companies, and the possibility that firm boundaries can become in

some sense porous and blurred offers the opportunity for new ways

of coordinating activities, generating innovative products, and

governing shareholder interests. What the industrial revolution has

seemingly arbitrarily divided (i.e., labor vs. consumption vs. man-

agement) might be bridged with consumerorganization connec-

tions and more effectively meet the needs of multiple actors and

constituencies in society.

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Received August 11, 2009

Revision received May 12, 2011

Accepted May 16, 2011


Documents

Customer–Organization Relationships: Development and Test of a Theory of Extended Identities