How Social Currency Influences Sense of Virtual Community and Behavioral Intention: Evidence from the Pokémon Go Phenomenon

Yu-Bing Wang^1,

¹Department of Marketing, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan

Cite this paper:
Yu-Bing Wang. How Social Currency Influences Sense of Virtual Community and Behavioral Intention: Evidence from the Pokémon Go Phenomenon. Journal of Business and Management Sciences. 2025; 13(4):81-90. doi: 10.12691/jbms-13-4-1

Abstract

This research paper explores the phenomenon of an innovative consumer gaming experience and the accumulation of social currency through the case of Pokémon Go’s brand image and its impact on consumer behavioral outcomes. The study addresses critical research gaps and contributes to the field of digital marketing strategy by examining how brand image interacts with the sense of virtual community and customer experience in both online and offline environments. An online questionnaire was administered to 360 participants in Taiwan, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to test the proposed relationships. The study also incorporated positive and negative word-of-mouth as moderating variables to evaluate the strength of the relationship between social currency and behavioral intention. The findings suggest that Pokémon Go’s compelling brand image and immersive experience foster a strong sense of virtual community and enhance social currency, which in turn positively affects consumers’ behavioral intentions. Furthermore, positive word-of-mouth significantly strengthens this relationship, while negative word-of-mouth shows no moderating effect. This study provides new insights into the role of social currency as a catalyst for gamified brand engagement and offers a framework that can be replicated across other mobile games and gamified platforms to promote user loyalty and community participation.

Keywords:
Social Currency Sense of Virtual Community (SOVC) Behavior Intention Experience Marketing Pokémon GO

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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