Bridging indistinct relationships and online loyalty: evidence from online interest-based communities
| Pages | 731-751 |
| Published date | 23 September 2013 |
| Date | 23 September 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-01-2011-0220 |
| Author | Chun-Der Chen,Edward C.S. Ku |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval |
Bridging indistinct relationships
and online loyalty: evidence from
online interest-based communities
Chun-Der Chen
Ming Chuan University, Taipei, Taiwan, and
Edward C.S. Ku
National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose – Bridging indistinct relationships and online loyalty has become an important strategy for
online interest-based communities’ operators and firms. The objective of this study is to draw on the
elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to advance our understanding of the influences on the
development of relationship quality and the consequent impact on members’ loyalty to online
communities.
Design/methodology/approach – To test the hypotheses the authors identified and selected four
interest-based online communities in Taiwan. The online survey yielded 331 completed questionnaires
from members of interest-based online communities and the authors analysed the results using the
structural equation modelling approach.
Findings – The findings show that argument quality and source credibility positively affect
members’ perceived relationship quality, which has a positive and significant effect on behavioural
loyalty, and personal relevance and user expertise positively moderate the relationship between
argument quality and relationship quality and negatively moderate the relationship between source
credibility and relationship quality.
Research limitations/implications – While this study has produced meaningful insights for
investigating the informational processing influences on relationship quality and subsequent
behavioural loyalty through the ELM perspective, the samples may not allow researchers to draw
more general conclusions across different types of community contexts. The data were collected only
from interest-based communities. Examining this model across different types of online communities,
such as transaction-, relationship-, or fantasy-based ones, would help establish the generalisability of
these results beyond the current context.
Practical implications – Thepresent study can help managers of online communities recognise the
differential effects of these information processes across a user population and customise optimal
strategies that best fit the unique characteristics of their community members. For making argument
quality more convincing, Toulmin’s (1958) model of argumentation could serve as an appropriate
mechanism. Moreover it is crucial to provide various indicators of source credibility for information
content.
Originality/value – The paper addresses a gap in the research by using ELM to better understand
the influences on the development of relationship quality and the impact on members’ loyalty.
Understanding these dynamics is critical since it: enriches the relationship marketing and information
management literature by addressing the role of information content in the management and success
of online communities; helps online community managers customise optimal strategies for their
members, thereby fostering members’ loyalty and their platform’s competitive advantage; and
illuminates two influential processes that can achieve the desired attitude change in the context of
online communities.
Keywords Online community,Customer loyalty, Consumer behaviour,Elaboration likelihood model,
Relationshipquality, Source credibility
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
Online loyalty
731
Received 8 January 2012
First revision accepted
30 August 2012
Online Information Review
Vol. 37 No. 5, 2013
pp. 731-751
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-01-2011-0220
Introduction
Online interest-based communities provide content on specific topics and discussion
forums for people to share opinions and interact, thereby offering new ways for
companies to promote deep relationships, improve the creation and synthesis of
knowledge for products and services, and even generate more commercial transactions
and ad revenue (Chu and Chan, 2009). Such communities are based on shared
enthusiasm for an issue or an activity; they possess and exchange knowledge
concerning specific product domains and often are virtual meeting places for
innovative users to discuss opportunities for new products and ideas for product
improvement. Although online interest-based communities can attract a large number
of people who become committed to them, it has been found that online firms and
vendors fail to instil significant commitment among their customers through online
communities (Chou, 2011; Chiu et al., 2011; Shin, 2010; Lin et al., 2008). Thus, bridging
indistinct relationships and online loyalty has become an important strategy for onlin e
interest-based communities’ operators and firms.
Previous studies have argued that interest-based communities and communities of
practice can be identified for discussion communities (Tang and Yang, 2005); they have
increasingly acknowledged that the social interaction supported by technology is
crucial to the success of online interest-based communities, that members often
prototype novel sports-related products, and that they receive assistance in developing
their innovations from fellow community members (Franke and Shah, 2003). They
have thus suggested that investment in community-building infrastructure has a
positive effect on the future loyalty intention of highly relational patrons.
Commitment to an online community is characterised by the members’ helping
behaviour and active p articipation (Sanche z-Franco and Martin- Velicia, 2011;
Royo-Vela and Casamassima, 2011); it has an impact on potential users’ relationship
quality (Chang and Wang, 2011; Liu et al., 2011; Chiu et al., 2011; Ho and Oh, 2009).
Likewise long-term relationships with customers are important for organisational
success (Casalo et al., 2007). To gain a competitive advantage firms must pool
marketing resources and develop reliable long-term relationships with their customers.
Online communities recognise their characteristics of relationship formation,
emotional commitment, and shared interests/goals while adding such specific
functions as facilitating economic exchanges and exploring new identities in fantasy
communities (Kannan et al., 2000). In online computer-mediated communication media,
the most valuable resources are the member-generated content and recommendations
within those platforms (Jin et al., 2010); the information co-created by users
significantly influences relationship quality and loyalty development. Thus the
objective of this study is to draw on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to advance
our understanding of the influences on the development of relationship quality and the
consequent impact on members’ loyalty to online communities.
In this study we investigate the role of two information-processing routes – the
central route (argument quality) and the peripheral route (source credibility) – in
motivating members’ relationship quality. Understanding the dynamics of
information-processing routes related to the development of relationship quality is
critical for theoretical and practical reasons since such information could enrich the
relationship marketing and information management literature by addressing the
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