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

factors

Nova Novita

Ira Geraldina

Intan Oviantari

1. Introduction• A virtual community is a cyberspace having various Internet based chat

technologies, including discussion forums (discussion or bulletin board), etc.

• I found that the factors leading to success of virtual communities have not been carefully examined; therefore, I developed and empirically tested a virtual community success model.

• Lin and Lee [18] stated that quality-perception dimensions were the key antecedents of effectiveness.

• social influences, such as leadership, are essential in a successful virtual community while trust is necessary if a member is to be willing to exchange information.

• By expanding the D&M model, my study examined the impact of system characteristics (e.g., information and system quality) and social factors (e.g., trust and social usefulness) on success in virtual communities.

2. Theoretical background and hypotheses2.1. Virtual communities

• A virtual community-based approach is an effective way of sharing knowledge.

• Three Internet-based chat technologies have received attention recently as media for community member communication: discussion forums, weblogs, and wikis.

• Discussion forums engage users in a question-and-answer process, Weblogs encourage first-person storytelling and commenting while both organize content chronologically. Wiki design and use focuses on incremental knowledge exchange, version management, and multi-user participation, making a wiki into an open-source community providing knowledge content.

• From a technical perspective, Internet-based chat technology supports virtual communities, in which individuals access both information and other people. A virtual community is like a social community, giving its members an opportunity to interact.

• 2.2. IS success model

• According to the D&M model, quality has two major dimensions: system quality measures technical success while information quality measures semantic success.

• User satisfaction and IS use measure user intentions and user opinion of the IS. Organizational impacts are considered to result from expectation of net benefits when using the IS.

• This implies that a high-quality system will be associated

with more user satisfaction and positive net benefits

2.3. Transitioning from IS success to virtual community success

• I assumed that system characteristics determined member satisfaction, and thus influenced the sense of belonging. These were linked to member loyalty, resulting in five hypotheses:

2.4. Social factors of a virtual community• The study examined two social influence variables, trust and social

usefulness, which have been considered highly pertinent in the virtual community context.

• Trust is the willingness of one party to be vulnerable to the actions of another.

H6. Trust positively affects sense of belonging to the virtual community.

• social usefulness refers to perceived support (respect, recognition, approval, etc.) from other community members when using the virtual community. This implies that users seek the approval of other community members when increasing participation.

H7. Social usefulness positively affects sense of belonging to the virtual community.

3. Research methodology-Fig. Research model.

3.1. Subjects and procedure

• Data were collected using a paper-based survey from a class of 236 students registered in five business courses at a large university located in the north of Taiwan.

• Of the 236 questionnaires distributed, 230 completed and usable questionnaires were received.

• Table 1 lists the respondent’s demographic characteristics,

3.2. Measurement development• All constructs were measured using multiple items, which were gathered in the

survey using a five-point Liker-type scale (ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree).

• Information quality; measured by information accuracy, completeness, currency, customized, and format of information presentation.

• System quality; measured using system reliability, convenience of access, response time and system flexibility.

• Trust; measured by six-items, adapted from Ridings et al. representing the ability, integrity and benevolence of other members of the community.

• Social usefulness; assessed using items from Gupta and Kim.

• Sense of belonging to the virtual community; measured by Teo et al.’s method, in which respondents showed if they strongly felt they were a part of the virtual community having strong morale among members.

3.2. Measurement development• Member satisfaction with the virtual community; assessed through three

questions: ‘I am satisfied with my interaction with the virtual community’, ‘The virtual community’s information content meets my needs’, and ‘Overall, I am satisfied with the virtual community’.

• Member loyalty; measured using three items taken from Lin and Yoo et al.that determined the extent to which members of the community were involved.

4. Data analysis and results

• The hypothesized models were empirically tested using SEM, supported by LISREL 8.8 software with maximum likelihood estimation.

• Data analysis proceeded in two stages.

• The measurement model was estimated using CFA to test convergent and discriminant validity of the measurement model.

• The structural model was analyzed to prove or disprove my hypotheses.

4.1. Scale validation

No pair of measures had correlations exceeding the criterion (0.9 and above), suggested by Hair et al., as shown in Table 4, implying that no multicolinearity existed among the various constructs.

4.2. Hypothesis testing

5.1. Findings and implications• The study examined the impact of system characteristics and social

factors on stimulation of successful virtual communities.

• After validated the proposed model. Members find that virtual communities meet their needs when they are reliable, convenient, and user-friendly, providing accurate, complete, constantly updated, and customized information.

• Therefore, online businesses and community providers should put time and effort into ensuring that their customers are satisfied with information and system quality, as these were identified as the key contributors to member satisfaction when using virtual communities.

• The findings consistent with previous studies.

• online businesses and community providers should offer a high level of interactivity among community members.

5.1. Findings and implications• Trust has the strongest influence on a sense of belonging to a virtual

community.

• Social usefulness did not significantly influence sense of belonging to the community. most respondents in my study were undergraduate students, representing a younger generation engaged in virtual communities to obtain enjoyment, entertainment, amusement and fun.

• sample selection bias may be a reason for the insignificant effect of social usefulness on members’ sense of belonging to the community.

• This finding might also be because relationship building is a consequence of interaction, rather than the prime motivator for members to participate in the virtual community.

• the insignificant effect of social usefulness on sense of belonging may be due to people’s reasons for joining the virtual community.

5.2. Limitations• First, the data were gathered from a relatively homogenous

demographic group: college students.

• Second, there are several benefits of Internet-based chat technologies that are used in virtual community and some may differ in their influence on the success of the community.

• Third, my study focused on how system characteristics and social factors affected the sustainability of the community but did not consider all determinants of successful communities.