Explaining The Participation In A Small Group Brand Community: An Extended TRA

This research aims to extend the TRA (theory of reasoned action) by adding social (perceived cohesion, social identity), psychological (self image congruence) and motivational (perceived enjoyment) factors to explain the participation in a small group brand community based around the Counter Strike game. The conceptual model proposes to test the mediating role of the perceived cohesion in the relationship between the perceived enjoyment and the attitude, the impact of the self image congruence on the social identity and the role of desire as a mediating variable for the effects of the subjective norms, the attitude and the social identity on social intentions. This study is conducted nearby 145 gamers, members of the Counter Strike small group brand community. The findings revealed that the perceived cohesion partially mediates the relationship between the perceived enjoyment and the attitude. It also showed that the self image congruence is an antecedent of the social identity. The desire mediates fully the effect of subjective norms and the social identity on social intentions, and partially the impact of the attitude on social intentions