Forming relationship commitments to online communities: The role of social motivations

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.11.002Get rights and content

Abstract

Although administrators of online communities (OCs) may focus on improving their OCs through upgrading technology and enhancing the usability of their OCs to attract additional users, the level of OC participation may be associated with social motives. The purpose of this study is to understand how social motivations (that is, network externalities and social norms) affect members committed to OCs. This study tests the hypotheses on data collected from 396 undergraduate students. Data analyses show that network externalities and social norms directly influence social interaction ties, which subsequently results in commitment toward a community. Social norms also directly influence relationship commitments to a community. The results provide insights into how social motivations lead to commitment to an OC, reminding OC administrators to encourage member commitment to the OC from the perspective of social motivations.

Highlights

► This study tried to understand how social motivations affect commitment to the OC. ► Network externalities indirectly (through interaction ties) influence commitments. ► Social norms directly and indirectly (through interaction ties) affect commitments. ► Interaction ties positively influence interpersonal trust and committed to the OC.

Introduction

Online communities (OCs) are an important resource for people with various interests, goals, and needs (Kim, Park, & Jin, 2008). In contrast to participants of a physical community, who physically gather at the same place and time, OC members are not physically colocated; thus, technology is used as the primary method of communication (Chu, 2009). However, regardless of whether the location is online or physical, a community is primarily based on a mutual interest among the participants. Because Internet media are used increasingly to share ideas and communicate, the global number of OCs has risen rapidly in recent years (Smedberg, 2008). Thus, the growth of online social networking sites, such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter (Rizavi, Ali, & Rizavi, 2011), has created a new world of communication (Cheung, Chiu, & Lee, 2011). Despite significant growth in the number of OCs, OC administrators have difficulty obtaining member commitment (Gupta & Kim, 2007). Relatively few communities retain sustained, active use among existing members.

Member commitment to the OC is vital for administrators (Gupta, Kim, & Shin, 2010). Therefore, from a managerial perspective, OC administrators aim to encourage active member participation, create greater site stickiness (Misra, Mukherjee, & Peterson, 2008), and develop member commitment to the OC. Accordingly, researchers have investigated how to retain OC members. For example, one researcher suggested that social interaction ties influence people’s intentions to remain in a professional OC, where members share an interest and expertise in a specific topic (Chen, 2007). However, antecedents that influence social interaction ties in OCs should be explored.

Although a previous study indicated that social norms and network externalities motivate the adoption and valuation of communication technology, such as e-mail and instant messaging (Dickinger, Arami, & Meyer, 2008), comprehension of the influence of network externalities and social norms on member participation and commitment to an OC remains limited. Thus, the aim of this study is to determine how encouraging active interaction between current members develops commitment to an OC. This study integrates social motivations as the antecedents to social interaction ties, and examines the links among network externalities, social norms, social interaction ties, member trust, and intention to commit to OCs.

Section snippets

Literature review and hypotheses development

The Internet can be a valuable tool for expanding a user’s personal network (Ishii & Ogasahara, 2007). OCs occur in a virtual space, enabling communication and supporting interpersonal interaction that extends over time (Chu and Chan, 2009, Martínez-Torres et al., 2010), and forming networks of personal relationships (Jung and Kang, 2010, Wellman et al., 1996). The popularity of user-to-user interaction on the Internet is increasing, and members demonstrate a highly positive tendency to share

Samples and data collection

Data were collected from classes at four universities in Taiwan. Students who were existing members of an OC were requested to participate in this survey during class time. The importance of their cooperation and the voluntary nature of the research were also stressed. If the respondent accepted the invitation, they were given a two-page survey questionnaire. Although no incentives were offered, of the 658 students propositioned, 408 students voluntarily participated in this study (a 62%

Data analysis and results

Data analysis comprised two primary phases. First, measurement items underwent confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using LISREL 8.7 to determine whether they possessed appropriate properties to represent respective constructs. Reliability of the scale items was examined using composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE), as suggested in literature (de Matos & Rossi, 2007). Next, to test the hypotheses, this study performed structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis to examine

Discussion

This article addresses whether social motivations affect current member participation in OCs, and how social motivations affect their commitment to OCs. This study investigates the effect of network externalities and social norms. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicates that both network externalities and social norms positively influence a member’s social interaction ties, which subsequently influence trust in other members and relationship commitments. The findings suggest that

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      Controlled type motivation encourages people to follow their peers by changing their attitude, values, or behavior to conform to those of the influencing group or individual. Prior research has shown that peer pressure has been considered as CM to use an SNS (Quan-Haase & Young, 2010), and to increase dedication to the network and augment the frequency of social network use (Wang & Chen, 2012) as well as foster intention to continue using the sites (Mouakket, 2015). Additionally, in some studies, peer pressure has been considered as a forceful form of CM for a broad range of behavior such as the smoking habit (Norman, Conner, & Bell, 1999), drinking among college students (Knee & Neighbors, 2002), and cyber-bullying (Heirman & Walrave, 2012).

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