Member Behavior in Company Online Communities
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A growing number of corporations have created sites where customers talk to one another. What kind of interaction takes place on these sites? In this study, we interviewed eleven members of company online communities (COC). We found that while users initially come to such sites looking for product information, they often stay to socialize, and develop meaningful friendships with other members (even turning to one-another for support in times of personal tragedy). We present case studies of interaction on two sites for Campbell's Soup, and for MINI Cooper car owners. We found that users are drawn to these sites because the product's brand image attracts a group of like-minded individuals. Adjectives used to describe the brand are also used to describe site members. I.e., Campbell's is trusting and down-to earth; MINI is fun-loving. Implications for website design are discussed.
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Number of citations to item: 11
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- Francisco J. Martínez-López, Rafael Anaya-Sánchez, Rocio Aguilar-Illescas, Sebastián Molinillo (2015): Factors Influencing Members’ Engagement with Virtual Brand Communities, In: Progress in IS, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-24826-4_10
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- Dan J. Kim, Mark Salvacion, Mohammad Salehan, Dae Wan Kim (2022): An empirical study of community cohesiveness, community attachment, and their roles in virtual community participation, In: European Journal of Information Systems 3(32), doi:10.1080/0960085x.2021.2018364
- Darley Sackitey, Teresa K. O'Leary, Michael Paasche-Orlow, Timothy Bickmore, Andrea G Parker (2023): "Everyone is Covered": Exploring the Role of Online Interactions in Facilitating Connection and Social Support in Black Churches, In: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, doi:10.1145/3544548.3581324