A Study on the Influence of Virtual Communities on Adopting Information as Shopping Decision Aids and the Moderation Effects of Members' Behavior on Information Activities

Virtual communities collect individuals to come together for forming relationship, sharing common goals and interests, as well as getting social supports. An additional function of virtual communities is economic exchange. Virtual communities has gradually been a new media for affecting sales by spreading information about brand, quality, price, experience, effectiveness, etc. Most studies of this subject emphasize influence of electronic word of mouth and posters’ opinions on product choice. However, social and relational influences, which are most important characteristics in virtual communities, are absent. Individuals who participate in virtual communities expect to have a social network, long-tern relationship, and share values. So, shopping reference groups in virtual communities could influence members’ product choice. Moreover, opinions of lurkers and other hidden members are usually ignored in literature. How members valuate information and use other members’ opinions affects their purchasing decision-making and product choice. All members’ behaviors should be considered. Accordingly, we would like to further explore how participation of virtual communities influences consumers’ product choice by considering rational, social and relational factors. Members may be willing to adopt information as a decision aid by evaluating information and referring companions’ recommendations. We will also figure out antecedents of rational, social and relational concerns. Furthermore, in order to comprehensively understand every participant’s attitude toward information in virtual communities, we would like to investigate how members, including posters and lurkers, treat messages in virtual communities and in turn adopt them to make a decision. This study will conduct self-administrative web-based questionnaires to collect data. We will look for a collaborative partner to carry on this study. We expect to post questionnaires in this virtual community and acquire parts of real data of participants. Based on our results, several theoretical and managerial implications will be proposed. We hope findings of this study could assist managers of virtual communities in enhancing persuasion on members’ preference and product choice and in turn increasing their reputation and revenue from advertisements and sponsorships.

Project ID:PF9806-1157
External Project ID:NSC98-2410-H182-003