Understanding virtual community members’ relationships from individual, group, and social influence perspectives
| Pages | 990-1010 |
| Date | 10 July 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-03-2016-0119 |
| Published date | 10 July 2017 |
| Author | Wen-Hai Chih,Li-Chun Hsu,Dah-Kwei Liou |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
Understanding virtual community
members’relationships from
individual, group, and social
influence perspectives
Wen-Hai Chih
Department of Business Administration,
National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan
Li-Chun Hsu
Department of Cultural Resources and Leisure Industries,
National Taitung University, Taitung, Taiwan, and
Dah-Kwei Liou
Department of Finance, Chihlee University of Technology,
New Taipei City, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore a model of how people are influenced from the perspectives
of individuals (cognitive trust and affective trust), group (sense of virtual community), and social influence
(normative influence and information influence) factors.
Design/methodology/approach –This research adopts structural equation modeling to test the proposed
model and the structural model shows a good fit. This research sample consists of 312 members who have
used Facebook for at least six months.
Findings –The results indicate the following. Both cognitive trust and affective trust have effects on
members’sense of virtual community. Cognitive trust, affective trust, and sense of virtual community have
effects on both normative influence and informative influence, respectively. Members in a virtual community
could create a sense of virtual community via affective trust. Members’sense of virtual community partially
mediates between cognitive/affective trust and normative/informative influence.
Originality/value –This study investigates the multiple perspectives of the interpersonal interaction
between individual, community, and social influence.
Keywords Virtual community, Trust theory, Facebook fan pages, Sense of virtual community,
Social influence perspective
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The emergence of social networking sites (SNSs) has resulted in the rapid evolution of online
community platforms into popular forums for communication and entertainment, while
users’word-of-mouth behavior has become increasingly decisive influence. With the
growing maturity of technologies related to SNSs, business managers have learned to
increase commercial profits (Trusov et al., 2009). In other words, firms are striving to
increase interactivity among brands’SNSs, website users, and non-website users to generate
positive outcomes through internet-enabled dissemination. For example, Global Web Index
(2014), a market research institution, found that social media has continued to grow and
develop in the last year based on the globalization information of social media. In 2013, the
number of new registered users on popular social websites increased by 135 million. In 2014,
the total number of Facebook users reached 1.393 billion and generated total revenue of
USD$3.85 billion in the fourth quarter of the year, which was an increase of 3.18 percent
compared with the third quarter (Facebook, 2015). That same year, the total revenue of
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 117 No. 6, 2017
pp. 990-1010
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-03-2016-0119
Received 29 March 2016
Revised 19 September 2016
Accepted 18 November 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
990
IMDS
117,6
Facebook reached USD$12.47 billion, which was an increase of 58 percent compared with
the previous year. Daily users have increased 18 percent compared with 13 percent total
growth of non-daily users (Business Next, 2015). It has become popular for companies to use
Facebook as a customer service channel to communicate brands with their customers.
More companies build up relationships with their customers, as well as respond to and solve
problems from customers, through Facebook rather than other social media (Social Time,
2015). In addition, the development model of online marketing has gradually transformed
from business-to-consumer (B2C) to consumer-to-consumer (C2C), a revolutionary and
well-received model that enables interactive e-commerce (Chu and Liao, 2007). Because of
the advances in internet technology, online WOM, which differs from traditional, offline
WOM, allows internet users to transmit messages to hundreds or thousands of people with
just a few clicks (Mangold and Faulds, 2009).
Regarding media value, Vitrue, a firm specializing in social media, calculates that the
impressions generated by one million fans are equivalent to a media value of USD$300,000
per month. For example, the Starbucks Facebook page has a fan base of approximately
6.5 million, translating into an annual media value of USD$23.4 million. On average, one
fan generates USD$3.60 in media value, and one million fans are worth USD$3.6 million
(Moorman et al., 1993). Therefore, the quicker a fan base expands, the larger the generation
of media value. In practice, firms use Facebook brand fan pages to create interaction and
rapport with fans. The companies then combine these pages with other online marketing
activities to transfer advertising from cyberspace to offline environments (Electronic
Commerce Times, 2010). Because of Facebook’s high reach rates, numerous firms have
created pages to garner popularity. In addition, Facebook brand fan pages benefit firms by
serving as a channel for managers to inform fans of new product information and to
announce relevant activities (Social Media Marketing Co., 2011). In addition to maintaining
positive trust relationships between brand manufacturers and consumers, online
community platforms allow brands to communicate product information to consumers
(thereby establishing information exchange and interactions with similar communities) and
assist community members in their future purchase decisions.
Previous studies investigating virtual brand communities have discussed cognitive trust
and affective trust and whether these two factors are keys to the successful management of
virtual communities (Lin, 2008; Yeh and Choi, 2011). However, these studies have typically
studied the parallel relationship between cognitive and affective trust rather than the
non-parallel aspect between them. Lewis and Weigert (1985) pointed out that the difference
between cognitive and emotional attitude form a long-standing debate. The concept of
cognitive trust and affective trust is clarified as a non-parallel relationship in the
organizational research literature. The cause and effect of the relationship between cognitive
trust and affective trust has not been explored in the context of virtual research (e.g. Venetis
and Ghauri, 2004; Vesel and Zabkar, 2009; Yeh and Choi, 2011). Based on previous
organizational research, trust is not a single holistic view. Trust also includes a cause and
effect relationship between cognitive and affective factors. Previous scholars have
advocated that cognitive trust is an antecedent of affective trust ( Johnson and Grayson,
2005; McAllister, 1995). The current study advocates that, in a virtual context, the attitude of
community members is formed by the same phenomenon. It is necessary to clarify the
relationship between cognitive trust and affective trust. This study examines the mutual
influence of cognitive and affective trust to assess whether cognitive trust in a virtual brand
community affects the establishment of users’affective trust. In addition, SNSs are
characterized by frequent interpersonal interactions. During such interactions, virtual
community users are susceptible to the influence of other users (Bearden et al., 1989).
Thus, this study also explores whether social influence among virtual community users is
affected by cognitive trust, affective trust, and the sense of virtual community among
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Virtual
community
members’
relationships
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