Customers participate in the organization through membership in customer communities: a situated cognition analysis

We propose a framework that views customers as organizational participants who contribute to organizations through membership in brand communities. Using the situated cognition perspective, we explore the sense-making related to the community participation of 174 members of the Ducati motorcycle community. Our findings provide a clearer explanation of the customers’ organizational participation and offer a more open and fine-grained conceptualization of the customers’ relationship to the company.