How does a customer prefer community or brand? The impacts of customer experience on customer loyalty based on the perspective of value co-creation

Purpose With the development of social networking service and WeMedia, virtual brand community has become a typical platform of value co-creation and customers have become a core subject of value co-creation. The high proportion of negative members and even zombie members has become an obstacle to the sustainable development of many communities. Then, how to maintain and promote the sustainable development of virtual brand community? The purpose of this article is to examine how customers prefer community or brand. Design/methodology/approach This paper obtained data through an online questionnaire survey to test the proposed hypotheses of this study. Findings The findings of this study indicated that practical and social values not only promote customers to be loyal toward community but also drive customers to be loyal toward brand and their influence on community loyalty is greater than on brand loyalty, but entertainment value does not significantly affect community and brand loyalty. The effect of practical and social values on community loyalty is fully mediated by the effect of brand loyalty, and the effect of practical and social values on brand loyalty is fully mediated by the effect of community loyalty. Originality/value This research enriches the research study’s results of value co-creation theory and customer assets, thus providing a new perspective for research on customer loyalty.