Success for whom? A probe into user experiences of online communities of interests

The online community (OC) plays an important role in modern people's daily lives. Successful OCs can meet users' needs for interest, relationship, fantasy, or transaction, and can create information value, experiential value, social value, or transaction value for the organizers. However, it's not easy to explain why some OCs are successful and some are not. OC success has been examined by researchers from different perspectives, such as the social perspective, the system perspective, or the organizer perspective. Studies from these perspectives have suggested that users play a key role in the success of an OC. Yet, understanding of user experiences in OCs from their own perspective was insufficient and fragmented. Most studies often presumed that the users share the same goal and perspective as organizers regarding OC success, while some empirical findings suggested otherwise. The research aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of OC success from the user perspective. Emphasizing users' active and subjective participation, this research applied design probe to delve deeper and closer into user activities, thoughts, and emotions that traditional research methods were rarely able to. The research yielded rich and texturized information on user experiences about OCs of interests. The research findings showed: 1) the user experience of OCs of interests is an interactive combination of various OCs, offline events, and activities around their own interests or goals, instead of an isolated experience in each OC as previous studies tend to consider; 2) users' perceived success of an OC is also based on the holistic experience around their interests or goals, instead of based on a single OC; 3) online and offline activities are interconnected in the building of users’ social relationships. The research suggests more researches of OC success from the user perspective, separate from the organizer perspective. The research also suggests future studies to aim at a clearer definition and measurement of OC success from the user perspective

Peran sosial kiai dalam pencegahan perkawinan dini di Kabupaten Lamongan

Perkawinan dini masih menjadi masalah serius yang memerlukan program pencegahan secara optimal dan berkelanjutan. Angka perkawinan dini juga belum menunjukkan penurunan secara signifikan. Di Kabupaten Lamongan, perkawinan dini juga menunjukkan trend yang sama, yakni sebanyak 69 di tahun 2017, 55 di tahun 2018, 116 di tahun 2019, 426 di tahun 2020, dan sebanyak 419 di tahun 2021. Berbagai program pencegahan sudah dilakukan oleh beberapa instansi terkait. Namun, peneliti tertarik melihat peran sosial Kiai yang juga turut terlibat secara langsung dalam program pencegahan tersebut. Para Kiai tidak hanya menyadari posisinya sebagai tokoh agama di masyarakat, tetapi juga turut berinteraksi, berpartisipasi, dan berkontribusi secara nyata dalam program pencegahan perkawinan dini. Penelitian tersebut bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan fenomena perkawinan dini di Kabupaten Lamongan, pandangan Kiai di Kabupaten Lamongan tentang perkawinan dini, dan peran sosial Kiai dalam pencegahan perkawinan dini. Untuk mengkaji tiga fokus utama tersebut, peneliti menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif fenomenologis untuk menemukan gambaran komprehensif mengenai peran sosial Kiai dalam pencegahan perkawinan dini. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan menggunakan teknik wawancara, observasi, dan dokumentasi. Data yang terkumpul dianalisis menggunakan analisis Miles, Hubermen, dan Saldana dengan tiga tahap, yakni kondensasi data, penyajian data, dan penarikan kesimpulan. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian yang dilakukan, terdapat beberapa temuan penting. Pertama, program pencegahan perkawinan dini di Kabupaten Lamongan melibatkan lima instansi pemerintah, yakni Dinas Pengendalian Penduduk dan Keluarga Berencana (DPPKB), Dinas Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Perlindungan Anak (DPPPA), Bimbingan Masyarakat (Bimas) Islam Kementrian Agama, Kantor Urusan Agama (KUA), dan Pengadilan Agama (PA). Namun, aktor strategis yang bersentuhan langsung dengan masyarakat kurang dilibatkan secara maksimal. Kedua, pandangan Kiai cenderung anti pada perkawinan dini karena didasarkan pada pertimbangan kemaslahatan dan kemadharatan. Para Kiai menolak perkawinan dini karena dianggap lebih banyak kemadharatan yang ditimbulkan daripada kemaslahatannya. Hal ini mengandung implikasi bahwa keputusan hukum tidak harus diputuskan dengan nalar hitam-putih dengan dalih kepastian hukum, namun perlu adanya perspektif fiqih social yang menghendaki adanya pertimbangan psikologi, sosial, dan budaya masyarakat. Ketiga, peran sosial ditampilakan dalam 7 (tujuh) komponen, yakni posisi sosial, fungsi sosial, ekspektasi, interaksi sosial, peran keluarga dan komunitas, partisipasi sosial, dan kontribusi sosial. Kiai menjalankan peran pencegahan perkawinan dini karena didasarkan pada refleksi sosial, argumentasi dan motivasi yang dimiliki Kiai. Peran sosial yang dimainkan berputar pada peran edukasi, motivasi, pengendalian sosial, pemberdayaan, advokasi, dan pendampingan. Beberapa bentuk peran dan relasi Kiai sebagai aktor dalam struktur sosial berimplikasi pada pengetahuan, pemahaman, sikap dan tindakan Kiai yang dimiliki dan diterapkan dalam proses pencegahan perkawinan dini

How social media brand community development impacts consumer engagement and value formation; perspectives from the cosmetics industry

Social media and social media brand communities (SMBCs) are powerful tools for long-term consumer-brand relationship building. As a result, SMBCs are becoming significant marketing channels. Despite the wide use and adoption of SMBCs, further research is called for, as both practitioners and academics lack an understanding of the processes taking place within SMBCs. This study aims to contribute to knowledge of: (1) consumer engagement, (2) value formation in SMBCs, and (3) establishing the relationship between consumer engagement and value formation within the SMBC environment. This thesis adopts netnography, a method commonly employed to explore online communities in the social media environment. Three cosmetics brands were selected for this study. The selection was driven by geographical location, posting frequency and user activity. Data were retrospectively collected from Facebook SMBCs between 1st December 2019 and 31st January 2020. The data analysis employed thematic analysis techniques and was further guided by netnographic procedural steps, encompassing 25 distinct data operations. In total, 87 conversation threads were examined, which included 6,401 consumer comments. The findings present a typology of brand posts consisting of five overarching themes: presentation of offerings, belongingness building, engagement building, value-led, and educational. The research also identified a consumer comment typology consisting of four overarching themes brand-centred communication, cognitive-centred communication, conversation-centred communication, and personal experience-centred communication. Additionally, the thesis explores value formation processes within SMBCs, and the value types formed through consumer-to-consumer value formation interaction, brand-to-consumer value formation interaction, consumer-to-brand value formation interaction, as well as individual value formation processes, i.e., customer independent value formation and brand independent value facilitation. Through the findings, thesis broadens knowledge of the implication of SMBC development on consumer engagement. Additionally, this study extends the scope of value formation beyond service marketing, providing valuable insights into how value is created and perceived in the context of SMBCs. This research is also of significance for practice as it offers guidance and insight into how different brand posts can facilitate SMBC development, and, in turn, consumer engagement and value formation. The research provides a link between SMBC development and consumer engagement, highlighting the importance of SMBCs in the successful facilitation of consumer engagement. In particular, it provides evidence that the development of an SMBC has a significant impact on consumer engagement. The typology of brand posts that this study generates highlights the link between the types of posts published by the brand and SMBC development. In addition, the typology of consumer posts also suggests that there is a link between the types of comments published by consumers and the degree of SMBC development. As a result, the findings indicate significant growth in the variety of topics discussed within more developed SMBCs alongside a shift within the topics discussed. The study also investigates value formation within SMBCs, thereby enhancing the understanding of how SMBCs can facilitate value formation. By doing so, this research successfully extends the value formation lens predominantly applied in service marketing. In particular, the findings highlight the role of different actors in enabling the formation of different value types. Furthermore, the research emphasises the value of SMBCs as knowledge repositories as important virtual spaces for both brands and consumers. The findings facilitate understanding of the importance of SMBCs in value formation processes, contributing to advancing knowledge of the role of SMBCs in the development of consumer engagement and value formation. The thesis presents a contextualised conceptual framework of value formation within SMBCs, that captures different interactions taking place in the SMBC environment but also draws attention to the different value types generated through interaction between different actors. Finally, the thesis offers a conceptual framework of SMBCs, consumer engagement and value formation, which captures the correlation between the three researched concepts

The identification and influence of social roles in a social media product community

HCERES Rang A, FNEGE Rang 2International audienc