Discursive interactions shaping online brand communities’ social dynamics
ISSN: 1352-2752
Article publication date: 17 February 2023
Issue publication date: 5 May 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Based on Landowski’s sociosemiotics theory, this paper aims to propose an alternative outlining of online brand communities’ social dynamics, not for their collective behaviors but for their discursive interactions.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected during a three-year netnographic immersion into a Disney-related Facebook group and authors’ trips to Walt Disney World.
Findings
The findings point to four styles of discursive interactions that shape an online brand community’s social dynamic. On the one hand, utterances based on the guiding and following styles of discursive interactions inform desired behaviors, which subsequently become tacitly routinized. On the other hand, utterances based on the adapting and venturing styles of discursive interactions mark random and unusual communicational situations.
Originality/value
This work expands current theoretical discussions on online brand communities by unveiling an unexplored linguistic dimension of them.
Keywords
Citation
Lima, V.M. and Pessôa, L.A. (2023), "Discursive interactions shaping online brand communities’ social dynamics", Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 232-246. https://doi.org/10.1108/QMR-01-2022-0003
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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