Forming relationship commitments to online communities: The role 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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