Online Brand Advocacy Scale

What it measures

A 16-item, four-dimensional scale measuring the extent to which brand-experienced consumers voluntarily and non-incentivised advocate for a brand in online settings. Developed via a multi-stage process including netnography, test-retest reliability, academic judge sorting, and two general online consumer samples. OBA is conceptualised as distinct from eWOM and consumer-brand engagement (CBE), capturing purposeful, elaborate, and publicly visible brand support that includes both verbal advocacy and virtual visual expression (emoticons, emojis). Grounded in Social Exchange Theory.

Response format

7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree); stem: “When I discuss [brand name] online, I often …”; dimension means reported

Scale items

Brand Defense

• Defend the brand when others talk it down
• Stand up for the brand when others talk negatively about it
• Talk up the brand when others talk negatively about it
• Defend the brand if I hear someone speaking poorly about it
• Try to convince others to buy the brand

Brand Positivity

• Say positive things about the brand
• Mention I am happy with its performance
• Talk about the brand favorably
• Say the brand is great

Brand Information Sharing

• Provide details about upcoming promotions and available discounts for the brand
• Provide extra details about the brand (e.g. price, store locations, availability of discounts or a link to a website)
• Share information about available or upcoming promotions (discounts) for the brand
• Provide lengthy explanations as to why the brand is better than other brands

Virtual Positive Expression

• Use emoticons or emojis, such as smileys or winks
• Use smileys
• Use visual symbols (e.g. emoticon, emoji, exclamation or capital lettering)

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

All four dimensions exceed α = .80 in the validation sample (Brand Defense α = .91, CR = .93; Brand Positivity α = .91, CR = .93; Brand Information Sharing α = .85, CR = .90; Virtual Positive Expression α = .92, CR = .95). AVE scores range from .69 to .86, all exceeding the .50 threshold. Discriminant validity from CBE and eWOM demonstrated via SEM. Brand Positivity and Brand Information Sharing predict both CBE and eWOM; Brand Defense predicts CBE only; Virtual Positive Expression predicts eWOM only. The Virtual Positive Expression subscale (3 items) required equality constraints on two error variances for identification. Scale stem must reference a specific brand name for ecological validity.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Wilk, V., Soutar, G.N., & Harrigan, P. (2020). Online brand advocacy (OBA): the development of a multiple item scale. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 29(4), 415–429.

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