Do Users Mind the Brand Engagement? The Effect of Brand Engagement in Knowledge Sharing Virtual Community

Although previous studies have discussed antecedent mechanisms for user participation and the value it creates in the brand community. Few studies discuss the role of brands, communities, and users in the co-creation of value when virtual communities are established based on users\u27 interests or needs. This paper explored the effect of brand participation on user community engagement intentions/behaviors in virtual communities. Data was collected from China by online survey and empirical analysis was used for hypotheses testing. The result shows that when brands participate in virtual communities, the higher the user\u27s engagement intention, the easier it is for them to make knowledge contribution, which will promote the development and operation of virtual communities. What’s more, in the context of brand participation, brand interactivity will affect the user\u27s community engagement intention and thus the user\u27s knowledge contribution, which will prompt the development of a virtual community. These findings confirmed that virtual community can help to implement circle marketing, interact with consumers, improve consumers\u27 willingness to participate actively, and have positive practical significance for the government and firms

Investigating the Reciprocal Relationships Within Health Virtual Communities

Health virtual communities are a major channel through which health consumers share health-related knowledge and/or exchange social support with their peers. Because of the collaborative nature of health virtual communities, user participation is a critical factor for community growth and prosperity. In this study, we examine the impact of reciprocity on user participation within health virtual communities. Additionally, we investigate the impact of the homophily (similarity of user characteristics such as age, gender, and tenure) on user participation. To do so, we analyzed 1947 messages exchanged between 130 users and their peers. Our results support short-term reciprocity, but refute the positive relationship associated with long-term reciprocity. Among homophily hypotheses, our results support gender homophily, but not age homophily and tenure homophily

User participation intention and social influence in virtual communities

A virtual community ("VC") is a group of people who interact primarily via IT, rather than face-to-face, for informational, social, professional, educational or other purposes. Given the growing popularity and special features of VCs (user-generated contents, virtual social interaction and voluntary participation), this dissertation intends to understand two user behaviors: users' continuance intention to participate and consumer purchase decision. The dissertation consists of three studies. Study 1 focuses on how the quality of user-generated contents and system performance impact users' continuance intention to participate in information-exchange VCs. In particular, this study investigates VC quality from a multi-dimensional perspective. As an extension of Study 1, Study 2 examines the role of users' past behavior on future participation intention. The objective of Study 3 is to understand the role of user-generated contents, namely, user reviews, and system performance in consumer decision-making outcomes in the context of transaction-based VCs. This study differentiates types of social influence developed from user reviews and investigates their sources and impacts on consumer purchase decision and system evaluation. The model also incorporates two individual characteristics to understand consumer differences in the formation of social influence. This dissertation intends to contribute to the IS literature on user behaviors in VCs and the value of VCs. It provides meaningful insights for VC design and management

A Multilevel Investigation of Participation Within Virtual Health Communities

Virtual health communities are a major channel through which health consumers share health-related knowledge and/or exchange social support with their peers. These virtual environments can be a form of, or a potential component of, integrated Patient-centered e-Health (PCEH) applications, which represent emerging healthcare information systems that emphasize the role of patients and revolve around providing patient-focus, patient-activity, and patient-empowerment services. Because of the collaborative nature of virtual health communities, user participation is a critical factor for community growth and prosperity. In this study, we examine user participation at the individual and group (thread) levels. At the individual level, we investigate the impact of reciprocity and homophily (similarity of user characteristics such as age, gender, and tenure) on user participation within virtual health communities. At the thread level, we study the role of highly active users (power users) as thread initiators as well as the role of thread initiators’ participation on the overall thread vibrancy. To do so, we analyzed 2,176 threads initiated by 130 users and 1,947 messages exchanged between these users and their peers. Our results support short-term reciprocity, but refute the positive relationship associated with long-term reciprocity. Among homophily hypotheses, our results support gender homophily, but not age or tenure homophily. At the thread level our findings suggest that a discussion thread is vibrant if the thread initiator is a power user or participates actively within the thread. These findings have important implications for future research and practice in PCEH applications

Gender Differences in Virtual Community Knowledge Sharing

Over the years, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 have promoted and prospered user-generated content, ease of use, interoperability, and virtual communities. Indeed, a growing number of online platforms and virtual communities contribute to our society and economy by maximally sharing knowledge among numerous participants. Hence, it is necessary to understand the participation-motivation of knowledge sharing in various virtual communities. Using a sample of American virtual communities of interest, this study examines a model of knowledge sharing based on social capital theory and social cognitive theory. This research echoes prior studies with similar and even stronger evidence. Also, the results suggest a significant moderating effect of gender difference on knowledge sharing in virtual communities – when participants share a common language and vision

Analysis of Trust in the E-Commerce Adoption

Understanding user acceptance of the Internet, especially the usage intention of virtual communities, is important in explaining the fact that virtual communities have been growing at an exponential rate in recent years. This paper studies the trust of virtual communities to better understand and manage the activities of E-commerce. A theoretical model proposed in this paper is to clarify the factors as they are related to the Technology Acceptance Model. In particular the relationship between trust and Intentions is hypothesized. Using the Technology Acceptance Model, this research showed that the importance of trust in virtual communities. According to the research, different ways of stimulating the members are necessary in order to facilitate participation in activities of virtual communities. The effect of trust in members on intention to use is stronger than that of trust in service providers. The intention to purchase is more sensitive to trust in service providers than trust in members

Habit Formation in Online Communities

A long standing dilemma of online communities is that a small group of community members account for a disproportionate amount of contributions. Prior studies built on intent-based explanations cannot fully explain the phenomenon. This paper introduces the concept of habit formation as a key driver of individual contributions and investigates how habit is formed and how it influences individuals’ participation behavior in online communities. We propose that a threshold of behavioral repetitions exists for individuals to develop a habit. Once the threshold is surpassed, the habit of participation grows stronger and becomes self-reinforcing. We also propose that habit formation weakens the influence of reciprocity, social capital and competition on user participation in virtual communities. Using a panel data of 130,882 postings across 115 discussion boards, we find support for all the hypotheses. Our analysis contributes to the emerging literature on routinized information technology use

Text Mining Model for Virtual Community User Portrait Based on Social Network Analysis

With the rapid development of virtual communities, more and more customers participate in product innovation and knowledge sharing through virtual communities. Research on virtual community members, especially for community members, will help the community to manage the members and further promote community development and knowledge innovation. At present, the main difficulty in the study of community member user portraits lies in the user\u27s grasp of user behavior data in the community. There is a large amount of structured data and semi-structured data in the community, which is crucial for the portrayal dimension of user portraits. This paper uses the association rule crawler algorithm to conduct community user behavior data association search, and uses text mining, social network analysis (SNA) and clustering technology to image users in the knowledge innovation community from the perspectives of professionalism, participation enthusiasm and network capability. The main result divides users into fancier, participator, and tourist

Creating virtual communities of practice for learning technology in higher education: Issues, challenges and experiences

The need for a Web portal to support the rapidly growing field of learning technology has been well established through a number of national surveys and scoping studies over recent years. The overarching vision has been the provision of a virtual environment to assist in informing and developing professional practice in the use of learning technologies. This paper outlines the issues and challenges in creating such a portal through the experiences of developing the RESULTs Network. In the paper, design and participation issues are considered within the wider context of online and networked approaches to supporting practice and professional development. User participation methodologies and technical developments for RESULTs are described in relation to a review of existing representations of practice and a comprehensive survey amongst the learning technology users’ community. An outline of key achievements and experiences is presented, followed by some conclusions regarding the cultural and political issues in creating a viable and sustainable facility and suggestions for possible future direction in national provision

Build it and Will They Come?: Participatory Digital Archives, Hesitant Users, and the Emerging Archival Commons

In the mid-2000s, archivists introduced a range of Web 2.0-based participatory features into digital archives to make them more accessible to patrons. Some archivists hoped the increased accessibility of digital archives would lead to the creation of virtual communities of users that would eventually participate in archival workflows, especially description. Archivists’ desire culminated in the idea of the archival commons, a network-crowd sourcing model highly dependent on intensive user participation. Users however, only minimally used digital archives’ participatory features during the mid-‘00s. Recent scholarship though, reveals that users have begun to increasingly use the participatory aspects of digital archives, suggesting archivists’ goal of establishing an archival commons based upon user-participation remains obtainable. This article explains why users underutilized digital archives’ participatory features during the mid-‘00s, analyzes the recent upswing in patrons’ use of such tools, and presents suggestions on how to increase users’ use of digital archives’ participatory features