Antecedents of Behavioral Intention of Virtual Community Participation: An Empirical Study

Virtual communities (VCs) have emerged as a new form of business model in the electronic business field. Understanding the motivations behind members’ participation is essential for VC organizers. VC participation behavioral intention is a major factor to shape VC participation behavior and it is very important to investigate factors influencing VC behavioral intention. Using the Triandis model of interpersonal behavior, this paper investigated antecedents of behavioral intention to participate in VCs. The results showed that affect, social factors, and perceived consequences are effective in explaining the behavioral intention to participate in VCs. The result also raised the issue of different types of communities’ interaction effects on different strength of relationships

Learners’ continuance participation intention of collaborative group project in virtual learning environment: an extended TAM perspective

The aim of this study is to explore learners’ intention to return to the electronic environment through the use of wikipages. The survey is based on students’ participation in a collaborative group project over a one semester course on business information systems. A research model based on the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been proposed to investigate what factors will influence learners’ continuance participation in the electronic learning environment. 75% of students returned the questionnaire and the data analysis results based on the extended TAM Shows that the learners’ intention to return to the electronic learning environment was highly associated with their attitude towards the electronic learning tool and the affection associated with the tool

On The Role Of Normative Influences In Commercial Virtual Communities

The potential to reconcile economic benefits to the firm with the social needs of customers has made commercial virtual communities a popular tool for companies to support their core products/service with a value-added service option. An important key to the success of such a virtual community is the behavior of its members. In this paper, we develop a framework of pro-social behavior (i.e., community citizenship behavior and contribution intentions) for understanding and explaining the motivation of virtual community members to actively participate in and care for the community. We show that the main determinants of pro-social behavior are the social norm of reciprocity and the personal norm of obligation. Reciprocity, in turn, is impacted by the value of the information and the socio-emotional support exchanged by the virtual community members.marketing ;

Trust and reciprocity effect on electronic word-of-mouth in online review communities

Purpose Social media developments in the last decade have led to the emergence of a new form of word of mouth (WOM) in the digital environment. Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is considered by many scholars and practitioners to be the most influential informal communication mechanism between businesses and potential and actual consumers. The purpose of this paper is to extend knowledge about WOM in this new context by proposing a conceptual framework that enables a better understanding of how trust and reciprocity influence eWOM participation in ORCs. Design/methodology/approach This study applies non-probability convenience sampling technique to conduct a quantitative study of data from an online survey of 189 members of ORCs. Partial least squares (PLS) is used to analyse the correlations between individuals’ intention to seek opinion, to give their own opinion and to pass on the opinion of another within ORCs. Findings The data analysis reveals that opinion seeking within ORCs had a direct effect on opinion giving and opinion passing. Ability trust and integrity trust had a positive effect on opinion seeking, while benevolence trust had a direct positive effect on opinion passing. Reciprocity had a direct impact on opinion passing. While reciprocity did not affect opinion giving, the relationship between these two concepts was mediated by integrity trust. Research limitations/implications By studying the complexities that characterise the relationships between reciprocity, trust and eWOM, the study extends understanding of eWOM in ORCs. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of only a few papers that have examined the complex interrelationships between reciprocity, trust and eWOM in the context of ORCs

Post-Adoption Beliefs Influencing Continued Participation in Virtual Communities

This study aims to investigate what motivates individuals to continue to participate in virtual communities A comprehensive model that incorporates the antecedents of individuals behavioral intention to continued participation in virtual communities is proposed and empirically tested The data for this study were collected through a Web survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling The results indicate that attitude toward participating in virtual communities is a significant predictor of continuance intention The strongest influence on attitude toward participation was found for perceived enjoyment Perceived usefulness and subjective norm were found to have significant positive influences on attitude toward participation The implications of the results of this study are expected to contribute to identifying key predictors of individuals continued intentions to participate in virtual communities and provide insights into effective strategies to vitalize virtual communities in the postadoption stag

Post-Adoption Beliefs Influencing Continued Participation in Virtual Communities

This study aims to investigate what motivates individuals to continue to participate in virtual communities A comprehensive model that incorporates the antecedents of individuals behavioral intention to continued participation in virtual communities is proposed and empirically tested The data for this study were collected through a Web survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling The results indicate that attitude toward participating in virtual communities is a significant predictor of continuance intention The strongest influence on attitude toward participation was found for perceived enjoyment Perceived usefulness and subjective norm were found to have significant positive influences on attitude toward participation The implications of the results of this study are expected to contribute to identifying key predictors of individuals continued intentions to participate in virtual communities and provide insights into effective strategies to vitalize virtual communities in the postadoption stag

Understanding the role of social situations on continuance participation intention in online communities: an empirical perspective

In recent years, the mushrooming development of Online Communities (OCs) has ushered a new paradigm of research for organizational sustainability in IS. In essence, the growth and survival of an online community relies predominantly on the continuous participation of its members. Given that the emergence of OCs may decay or even diminish due to the lack of consistent involvement of members, it is of paramount importance to fathom how to retain and entice members of OCs in terms of their continuous participation in the online platform. Extant studies have focused mostly on personal belief constructs and subjective norm constructs to study users' continuous behavior. However, the important role of social situations has not been sufficiently explored and investigated in IS, particularly in the emerging context of OCs. Drawing on the Triandis model, this study proposes a research model incorporating social situations as the moderator on the continuance participation intention in OCs. We collected data from two large OCs to examine whether congruence exists between situation perceptions and situation reactions. The empirical results show that social situations play an important role in determining the strength of the relationships between affect, social factors, and perceived consequences and the continuance intention in OCs

When Socialization Goes Wrong: Understanding the We-Intention to Participate in Collective Trolling in Virtual Communities

Although collective trolling poses a growing threat to both individuals and virtual community owners, the information systems (IS) literature lacks a rich theorization of this phenomenon. To address the research gaps, we introduce the concept of we-intention to capture the collective nature of collective trolling in virtual communities. We also integrate the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE) and situational action theory to invoke the sociotechnical perspective in theorizing collective trolling in virtual communities. The objective of this study is to use the sociotechnical perspective to understand the we-intention to participate in collective trolling in virtual communities. We test our proposed model using data gathered from 377 Reddit users. Our moderated mediation analysis elaborates how technical elements (i.e., anonymity of self and anonymity of others) influence the we-intention to participate in collective trolling via individual-based social elements (i.e., perceived online disinhibition and social identity), with an environment-based social element (i.e., the absence of capable guardianship) as a boundary condition. We contribute to research by explaining collective trolling in virtual communities from the group-referent intentional action perspective and sociotechnical perspective. We also offer practical insights into ways to combat collective trolling in virtual communities