Determinants of successful virtual communities: Contributions from system characteristics and social factors

Although there is growing interest in virtual communities, few studies have examined them from an integrated viewpoint including technical and social perspectives. By expanding on DeLone and McLean’s IS success model, the author constructed a model of the impact of system characteristics (e.g., information and system quality) and social factors (e.g., trust and social usefulness) in implementing successful virtual communities. Data collected from 198 community members provided support for the model. Results showed that both member satisfaction and a sense of belonging were determinants of member loyalty in the community. Additionally, information and system quality were found to affect member satisfaction, while trust influenced the members’ sense of belonging to the community. Finally, the findings provided understanding of the factors that measured virtual community success. Implications of my study are discussed.     

Fostering the determinants of knowledge sharing in professional virtual communities

Professional virtual communities (PVCs), which are formed on the Internet, are expected to serve the needs of members for communication, information, and knowledge sharing. The executives of organizations should consider PVCs as a new innovation or knowledge pool since members share knowledge. However, many PVCs have failed due to members’ low willingness to share knowledge with other members. Thus, there is a need to understand and foster the determinants of members’ knowledge sharing behavior in PVCs. This study develops an integrated model designed to investigate and explain the relationships between contextual factors, personal perceptions of knowledge sharing, knowledge sharing behavior, and community loyalty. Empirical data was collected from three PVCs and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) to verify the fit of the hypothetical model. The results show that trust significantly influences knowledge sharing self-efficacy, perceived relative advantage and perceived compatibility, which in turn positively affect knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, the study finds that the norm of reciprocity does not significantly affect knowledge sharing behavior. The results of the study can be used to identify the motivation underlying individuals’ knowledge sharing behavior in PVCs. By investigating the impacts of contextual factors and personal perceptions on knowledge sharing behavior, the integrated model better explains behavior than other proposed models. This study might help executives of virtual communities and organizations to manage and promote these determinants of knowledge sharing to stimulate members’ willingness to share knowledge and enhance their virtual community loyalty. As only little empirical research has been conducted on the impact of knowledge sharing self-efficacy, perceived relative advantage, and perceived compatibility on the individual’s knowledge sharing behavior in PVCs, the empirical evidence reported here makes a valuable contribution in this highly important area.     

Antecedents of an experienced sense of virtual community

Sense of virtual community (SOVC) reflects the feeling that individual members have of belonging to an online social group. Yet there is a lack of investigation focusing on its individual-level antecedents. We argue that in order to enhance understanding of how SOVC develops we first need to distinguish between the individual expectations, actions, and the resulting community-related feelings. Drawing upon the uses and gratifications approach, we explore the community members’ expected benefits, their linkages with different types of community participation and consequently with the experienced SOVC. We tested the hypotheses on a sample of 395 members of a virtual community hosted by a Finnish business newspaper. The findings suggest that both forms of participation – reading and posting messages – have a positive impact on SOVC, but the expected benefits differ. Participation by reading messages is mainly driven by the expectation of cognitive benefits, while posting messages seems to be largely driven by the anticipation of both social and personal integrative benefits. Our study contributes by providing a refined SOVC conceptualization and operationalization for virtual-community research, and by opening up the individual-level actions that build up a sense of virtual community.     

Social influence process in the acceptance of a virtual community service

This study investigates the effect of subjective norms, tendency to social comparison, and social identity on behavioral intention to use an Avatar service. Use of a virtual community service can be regarded as social behavior or a behavior affected by social factors. This study relies on the link between subjective norms and behavioral intention in the theory of reasoned action, social identity theory, and social comparison literature. The proposed model was tested using survey data with the results lending support for the proposed model. The implications from this study are expected to contribute to the literature by shedding light on the social influence process in two ways. First, this study unveils how social factors including subjective norms, social identity, and tendency to social comparison affect behavioral intention to use a specific service from virtual communities. Second, this study will aid managers and academics to further understand the social nature of customer behavior with regard to using virtual community services and thus provide insight for the development of technology driven e-commerce. Jaeki Song is Assistant Professor of Information Systems and Quantitative Sciences at the Rawls College of Business Administration at Texas Tech University. His research interests include electronic commerce, web design, information systems strategy, and technology adoption. His work has appeared in Management Science, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, Information & Management, and International Journal of Information Management. He also has published book chapters on Global Information Technologies and Electronic Commerce. Yong Jin Kim is Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the School of Management at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He holds a Ph.D. in MIS from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has 10 year industry experience. His research interests are in knowledge management, technological innovation, IS success, e-business, and information technology valuation. He has published papers in outlets such as MIS Quarterly, Communications of the ACM, Decision Support Systems, International Journal of Information Management, JITTA, and Knowledge and Process Management. He also has published book chapters on IS Success and e-learning.     

Exploring and mitigating social loafing in online communities

The motivation to share members’ knowledge is critical to an online community’s survival and success. Previous research has established that knowledge sharing intentions are based on group cohesion. Several studies also suggested that social loafing behavior will seriously corrode group cohesion. Therefore, social loafing is a key obstacle to fostering online community development. Although substantial studies have been performed on the critical factors that affect social loafing in the learning group, those on online communities are still lacking. By integrating two perspectives, social capital and perceived risk, a richer understanding of social loafing behavior can be gained. In the research model, social ties and perceived risk have been driven by anonymity, offline activities, knowledge quality, and media richness. Social ties and perceived risk are hypothesized to affect social loafing in the online community, which, in turn, is hypothesized as negatively affecting group cohesion. Data collected from 323 online users in online communities provide support for the proposed model. The study shows that social loafing is a significant negative predictor of the users’ group cohesion. The study also shows that social ties and perceived risk are important components of social loafing. Anonymity, offline activities, knowledge quality, and media richness all have strong effects on social ties and perceived risk in the online community. Implications for theory and practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

A study of Facebook Groups members’ knowledge sharing

There have been many studies focusing on individuals’ knowledge sharing behavior in the organizational setting. With the rapid prevalence of social networking sites, many people began to express their thoughts or share their knowledge via Facebook website. Facebook is an open environment which does not provide any immediate monetary benefits to its users. Its Groups members’ knowledge sharing behavior could be different from the ones in organizations. We proposed a research model to examine factors which promote the Facebook Groups users’ willingness to share knowledge. The factors in the study include extrinsic motivation, social and psychological forces, and social networking sharing culture. We used PLS to test our proposed hypotheses based on 271 responses collected through an online survey. Our results indicated that reputation would affect knowledge sharing attitude of Groups members and sense of self-worth would directly and indirectly (through subjective norm) affect the attitude. In addition, social networking sharing culture (fairness, identification, and openness) is the most significant factor, not only directly affecting knowledge sharing intention, but also indirectly influencing the sharing intention through subjective norm and knowledge sharing attitude.     

Applying the integrative model of behavioral prediction and attitude functions in the context of social media use while viewing mediated sports

Based on the integrative model of behavioral prediction and attitude functions, the present investigation examines the motivations and factors that predict one’s intentions to use social media while viewing mediated sports. Structural equation modeling analysis revealed that the utilitarian functions, the social identity function, the self-esteem maintenance function, and self-efficacy positively predicted attitudes toward social media use while viewing mediated sports. Controlling for other possible behaviors, attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy predicted intentions to use social media. Results demonstrated that the integrative model, coupled with attitude functions, can explain a large amount of variance in one’s attitudes and media choice tendency.     

Developing an antecedent model of knowledge sharing intention in virtual communities

This study explored the antecedent model of knowledge sharing intention in virtual communities based on social influence theory. A field survey was performed with the participation of 176 college students who were Facebook users. The results indicated that expected benefits (i.e., cognitive benefits, social integrative benefits, personal integrative benefits, and hedonic benefits) significantly and positively influenced social influence factors (i.e., group norms, social identity, and subjective norms). In addition, social influence factors (i.e., group norms, social identity, and subjective norms) significantly and positively influenced knowledge sharing intention in virtual communities. Finally, social influence factors (i.e., group norms, social identity, and subjective norms) fully mediate the effects of expected benefits (i.e., cognitive benefits, social integrative benefits, personal integrative benefits, and hedonic benefits) on knowledge sharing intention. This study identified the antecedents of knowledge sharing intention in virtual communities, and the results could be applied to areas of organization, education, and business.     

I became an attractive person in the virtual world: Users’ identification with virtual communities and avatars

A number of studies have examined virtual worlds, which can facilitate knowledge sharing, education, and enjoyment, among others. However, no study has provided an insightful research model for evaluating virtual worlds. This study suggests that users’ identification with virtual communities and avatars plays a critical role in the construction of attractive virtual worlds. The proposed model measures the level of the user’s identification with virtual communities, through which the user builds his or her trust in other community members. In addition, the study suggests that users’ identification with avatars is an important element of their satisfaction with virtual worlds. The results indicate that users’ identification with virtual communities as well as avatars can enhance their efficacy and trust and thus facilitate their sustained use of virtual services. The results have important theoretical and practical implications.     

Should I e-collaborate with this group? A multilevel model of usage intentions

The use of online collaboration tools for virtual teamwork has been studied extensively, but mainly at the individual-level. We decided to examine the effect of macro-level factors (i.e., team attributes) and applied hierarchical linear modeling analysis to a sample of data collected from 96 individuals nested in 34 virtual teams. Our results suggested that the development of behavioral e-collaboration intentions by individual virtual team members was affected by their perceptions about the system, as described by individual-level IT use theories, and macro-level factors pertaining to the team. The collaboration technology was perceived to be less useful when employed to communicate with social loafers; and collective social loafing negatively influenced the teams’ potency assessments. After controlling for individual-level perceptions of system usefulness, team potency augmented team members’ intentions to use the online collaboration technology with similar teams. It also improved team performance.     

Why do users continue using social networking sites? An exploratory study of members in the United States and Taiwan

In this paper, we draw on an extended Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT) to explore factors that affect members’ continued use intention toward Social Networking Sites (SNSs). We also theorize about the intricate relationships among a variety of UGT constructs. Further, we conduct this research in a global context by comparing SNS use in the United States and Taiwan. Empirical survey data are collected to validate the research model, and several intriguing findings are observed. Our research results indicate that four determinants, i.e., gratifications, perceived critical mass, subjective norms, and privacy concerns, influence SNS users’ continuance intention and that regional differences moderate the effects of both gratifications and privacy concerns on continuance intention. Our study makes noticeable contributions to the literature on UGT and SNSs. The findings reported also inform service providers in developing better strategies for member retention.     

Presence: a unique characteristic in educational virtual environments

This article investigates the effect of presence on learning outcomes in educational virtual environments (EVEs) in a sample of 60 pupils aged between 11 and 13 years. We study the effect of personal presence, social presence and participant’s involvement on certain learning outcomes. We also investigate if the combination of the participant’s representation model in the virtual environment (VE) with the way it is presented gives a higher sense of presence that contributes to learning outcomes. Our results show that the existence of an avatar as the pupils’ representation enhanced presence and helped them to successfully perform their learning tasks. The pupils had a high sense of presence for both cases of the EVE presentation, projection on a wall and through a head mounted display (HMD). Our socialized virtual environment seems to play an important role in learning outcomes. The pupils had a higher sense of presence and completed their learning tasks more easily and successfully in the case of their egocentric representation model using the HMD.     

Virtually homosexual: Technoromanticism,demarginalisation and identity formation among homosexual males

‘Coming out’ is a key stage in the identity formation process for the homosexual male when the individual discloses his homosexual status to himself and others. Although previous research has indicated that homosexual men often use the Internet and computer-mediated communication (CMC) during the identity formation process to discover and develop their sexual and self-identities, studies to date have focused on their use of text-based CMC with scant attention paid to experiences within virtual worlds. This study explored whether homosexual males use virtual worlds in the sexual identity formation process and, specifically, the applicability of technoromanticism within this context. Qualitative retrospective biographical interviews were undertaken with 12 self-selected individuals who had engaged with virtual worlds before or during their sexual identity development. The CASE model (Community, Anonymity, Sexual experimentation, and Escape) was developed to characterise the key themes emerging from the data and illustrate the enactment of technoromanticism by homosexual males within virtual worlds. It is concluded that technoromanticism in virtual worlds can only have a profound impact on individuals if the individual’s personal development online is transferred offline as there is a potential to become toxically immersed and thus stall or halt the identity development process altogether.     

Learning Virtual Community Loyalty Behavior From a Perspective of Social Cognitive Theory

Drawing upon social cognitive theory (SCT), this research postulates several personal and environmental factors as key drivers of virtual community loyalty behavior in online settings. An empirical testing of this model, by investigating undergraduate students' participation in communities of online games, reveals the applicability of SCT in virtual communities. The study's test results show that the influences of both affective commitment and social norms on community loyalty behavior are significant, whereas the influences of both exchange ideology and social support on community loyalty behavior are insignificant. This research contributes to the online community literature by assessing critical antecedent factors to the unexplored area of community loyalty behavior, by validating idiosyncratic drivers of community loyalty behavior and by performing an operationalization of affective commitment and social norms in a virtual world. Last, managerial implications and limitations of this research are provided.     

Ambivalent effect of member portraits in virtual groups

Abstract Knowledge exchange with shared databases can be seen as a public-goods dilemma. People are reluctant to contribute information because they save time, effort and perhaps social power if they withhold their knowledge and socially loaf. But if all people choose this individually efficient strategy, then no information exchange can take place, and the group is less effective than it would have been if all members contributed. Thus, in the knowledge-exchange situation, group norms and individual norms oppose each other. In order to strengthen people's orientation towards the group, virtual collaborative tools sometimes provide member portraits. But based on the Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Effect (SIDE)-Model, ambivalent effects of these member portraits are expected according to people's social categorization: when people identify more strongly with the group, such portraits enhance participation, whereas when people have a stronger individual identity, they undermine participation. This study links the concepts of social value orientation to identity salience. The assumption is that in the information-exchange dilemma, the social value orientation of a group member will determine whether group identity or individual identity becomes salient for that group member. We then extend the SIDE-model to the domain of social loafing and expect that portraits of the group members will have different effects for people with individual orientation and for people with prosocial orientation. An experiment confirmed this expectation and revealed a significant interaction between social value orientation and portraits. Especially striking is the result that for prosocials the provision of member portraits leads to an increase in social loafing. This is analogous to the predictions of the SIDE-model.     

User goals in social virtual worlds: A means-end chain approach

The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to investigate user goals in social virtual worlds; second, to introduce a methodological alternative (i.e., a means-end chain approach) for analyzing user goals in cyberspaces. The data were acquired from a web survey, and were analyzed by means-end chain analysis (MECA), which produces users’ goal structure in reference to a hierarchical system of interrelated goals (Olson & Reynolds, 1983). The results show that people come to social virtual worlds to satisfy their social and hedonic needs, and to escape from real world constraints, as do virtual community members and virtual gamers; they also pursue unique activities, such as creating virtual objects and selling them. On the other hand, by clarifying relations among users’ goals, MECA provides a richer explanation for user goals than prior research which only offers separate user goals for cyberspace users without explanation of relationship among goals.     

Formalizing the evolution of virtual communities

Collaboration increasingly takes place in virtual communities using the Internet. These communities are socio-technical systems that tend to evolve strongly and become more complex over time. To ensure that the changes to these complex socio-technical systems are meaningful and acceptable to the community as a whole, the relevant members of the community need to be involved in their specification. The RENISYS method conceptualizes community specification processes as conversations for specification by relevant members. It supports this process in two steps. First, it uses formal composition norms to select the relevant community members who need to be involved in a particular conversation for specification. It then uses a formal model of conversations for specification to determine the acceptable conversational moves that the selected community members can make, as well as the status of their responsibilities and accomplishments at each point in time. By combining composition norms with conversations for specification, the specification processes can be precisely tailored to the specification support needs of the community.     

Conceptualizing the Awareness of Collaboration: A Qualitative Study of a Global Virtual Team

Innovative organizations are increasing their use of distributed teamwork, but there are several difficulties in reaching shared understanding between the team members in these settings. A lack of awareness of other team members’ working processes is one of the drawbacks that a virtual team may face while attempting to collaborate on a shared task. In this study virtual teamwork was supported with a specific working model. The aim was to investigate virtual team members’ awareness of collaboration. One global team (N=19) within a single organization worked as a distributed team in a shared web-based workspace for three months. The data were gathered by means of questionnaires, log-files of the shared virtual workspace and collected company documents in order to find out how team members perceive their collaboration. Based on qualitative data analysis, three different aspects of collaboration awareness were identified: an awareness of the possibility for collaboration, an awareness of the aims of collaboration, and an awareness of the process of collaboration. The results presented in this paper give guidelines for discussing what the awareness of collaboration means in the context of distributed collaboration.     

Correlates of different forms of cyberloafing: The role of norms and external locus of control

Cyberloafing is the personal use of email and the Internet while at work. The purpose of this study is to identify the different forms of cyberloafing and their antecedents. We propose that cyberloafing has two primary forms: minor cyberloafing (e.g., sending and receiving personal email at work) and serious cyberloafing (e.g., online gambling, surfing adult oriented web sites). Additionally, we hypothesize that employees’ perceptions of coworker and supervisor norms supporting cyberloafing are related to minor cyberloafing but not serious cyberloafing. We also hypothesize that external locus of control (i.e., a belief that chance and powerful others determines one’s outcomes), as an antecedent of other counterproductive work behaviors, will be related to both minor and serious cyberloafing. Two hundred and twenty two employed graduate business students were surveyed. Two forms of cyberloafing were identified: one composed of minor cyberloafing behaviors and one composed of the more serious cyberloafing behaviors. As predicted, employees’ perceptions of their coworkers’ and supervisor’s norms were positively related to minor cyberloafing, but not related to serious cyberloafing. Also as predicted, belief in chance was positively related to both minor and serious cyberloafing. A belief in powerful others was not related to minor or serious cyberloafing. Implications for policy development to regulate cyberloafing in organizations are discussed.     

Extraction of user profile based on workflow and information flow

A collaborative team usually consists of team members with various domains. These members’ demands for knowledge are also different from each other. For recommending potentially useful knowledge to suitable members, their user profiles should be well managed and maintained. User profile can be input by the members, but a more intelligent way should be the automatic extraction of the user profiles. Workflow and information flow are two types of collaborative processes, which exist behind every collaborative team. This paper is mainly concerned with how to extract these team members’ user profile from the two types of contexts: workflow and information flow. This paper defines a model for the user profile. Then some methods are proposed for extracting the profile information on the basis of workflow and information flow. This study on the user profile extraction can pave the way for developing knowledge recommender systems, which can recommend proper knowledge to proper team members with a collaborative team.