Abstract: Interpersonal awareness can be used to measure the intensity of psychological stress that people generate in interpersonal interactions. However, there is few empirical researches on the role of interpersonal awareness in existing brand management literature. This paper incorporates interpersonal awareness into the analytical model. Based on data from 222 members of the three brand communities of Fan Deng’s Reading, Hundun University, and Wu Xiaobo’s reading club, this paper analyzes the relationships among interpersonal awareness, community commitment, perceived community benefits, and interpersonal recommendation intention with OLS regression method. The empirical research finds that: (1) community commitment has a partial mediating effect between perceived community benefits and interpersonal recommendation intention; (2) interpersonal awareness negatively affects interpersonal recommendation intention and community commitment; (3) community commitment is moderated by interpersonal awareness. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.

Key words: brand community, interpersonal awareness, recommendation intention, community commitment, perceived community benefits