User Generated Branding: Integrating User Generated Content into Brand Management

The increasing relevance of the internet has brought about significant change in me­ dia consumption, communication and social behaviour and thus evoked a debate in both business studies and practice. Brands, in particular, are affected by the devel­ opments in and around the internet since they stimulate and shape such behavioural patterns. Therefore, how to manage a brand in the era of the internet has been a topic of discussion for quite some time. First, success factors of so called "virtual e­ brands" were searched for, then "internet-based brand management" was explored and finally one was acknowledged as an "expert" by only using the buzzword "brand management in Web2. 0. " Many of the papers and books published at that time, how­ ever, dealt only superficially with the subject, distinguishing themselves through se­ quences of empty words rather than in-depth knowledge of the matter. Unfortunately, this even led to the case that the editor of a topic related Special Issue of the "Mar­ keting Science" joumal preselected all submitted manuscripts according to the fact whether he personally liked or disliked the used terminology. Against the background of this situation of as much shallowness as sUbjectivity, Dr. Ulrike Arnhold analyses the state of the art of research within her dissertation with great care and intellectual finesse.