Abstract:
Globally, starting nearly from 2010 the researches interest on online brand community
engagement area was grown where two scholars have done two researches to explain
the dimensions of OBC engagement which at present stands as the most validated
measurement scales. The scholars have mentioned this area of the subject should be
investigated more and the scales introduced should be tested in different categories.
Locally, there's only one research done on this area. With the gradual increase in
internet penetration in Sri Lanka the need of having more confidence on how a brand
should act on an OBC is important. The study objectives are to identify the level of
impact of online brand community engagement, on purchase intention, to identify the
relationship between online brand community engagement on purchase intention, to
identify the impact of online brand community engagement on purchase intention, to
identify the online brand community engagement dimension, which have the most
significant impact on Purchase intention with special reference to the banking sector in
Sri Lanka. A quantitative approach with a questionnaire-based sample analysis is the
base of this study with an online survey and printed questionnaire. As the sample
population, any teachers in the Polonnaruwa area who has an active Facebook account
and are follow on any Facebook page related to the banking sector are considered. For
this purpose, the survey questionnaire was considered as a tool to get responses from
371 teachers.
In this study, the statistical tools that were used to analyze the levels of variables are
mean and SD values, while relationships were measured by Pearson coefficients,
impacts were measured by simple linear regressions and multiple linear regressions for
measured the most significant dimension. This study concludes that the result shod
significant positive associations among all the variables, by denoting a positive
relationship between online brand community engagement and purchase intention too,
also the most significant dimension is the helping dimension. Hence, this study will
help to the extent to which community activities affect the purchase intention of the Sri
Lankan banking sector through new internet penetration as well as engaging the
business community for further research on the use of social media and to consider new
approaches to this.
