Examining consumers’ brand endorsements on social media

It has become common practice for brands to seek endorsements from other parties, such as celebrities or experts. With the emergence of social media, brands’ portfolio of endorsers has been extended to the consumer. For instance, consumers engage into positive electronic word of mouth about their newest shoes, they tweet a picture of themselves with their brand new sunglasses, or like a nonprofit brand on Facebook. Brands can stimulate these endorsements (e.g., by raffling prices among the endorsing consumers), but endorsements may also occur spontaneously. We coin the term "consumers’ online brand endorsements" to describe this phenomenon and define consumers’ online brand endorsements as consumers’ intentional public online affiliations with brands, which are both positive in valence and meant to be perceived by others. Although consumers’ online brand endorsements are a widespread phenomenon, scientific knowledge about its drivers is scarce. The aim of this dissertation is therefore to identify and examine the workings and limits of three essential types of endorsement drivers: brand-related drivers, identity-related drivers, and community-related drivers.