THE EFFECT OF ONLINE COMMUNITY INTERACTION ON CUSTOMER PARTICIPATION IN VALUE CO-CREATION BASED ON STIMULUS-ORGANISM-RESPONSE MODEL

Abstract

As the market competition environment has changed, creating value with customers has become a way for firms to get a marking advantage, and the significance of client involvement in value creation has been widely recognized. Online brand communities have gotten a lot of attention in academia and business circles as a common platform for companies and clients to collaborate to create value. However, no scholar has conducted a thorough study on the mechanism of client taking part in value co-creation in view of online community interaction and psychological factors. The article conducts a research on the mechanism of online community interaction and psychological elements that encourage clients to take part in value co-creation to enrich the theoretical results and provide theoretical guidance for firms to conduct value co-creation.

This article investigates the influence path of online community interaction on value co-creation, the mediating role of community identity and flow experience, and the moderating role of prosocial motivation using the SOR (Stimulus-Organism-Response) model. First, this article develops a research model of online community interaction influencing client taking part in value co-creation and proposes hypotheses due to a thorough interpretation of the literature. Second, this article uses a questionnaire survey method to gather information from the online brand communities of mobile phone brands Xiaomi and Huawei. Third, this article uses SPSS and AMOS software to perform descriptive analysis of sample data, exploratory factor analysis, validity and reliability testing, path analysis, mediating effect and moderating effect testing to validate each hypothesis.

The research results show: (1) Online community interaction and community identity both have a direct impact on consumer taking part in value co-creation, and they directly influence value co-creation. (2) Flow experience does not directly influence value co-creation and does not serve as a mediator between online community interaction and value co-creation. To motivate clients to take part in value co-creation, the flow experience requires more community identity. (3) Online community interaction effect value co-creation directly and indirectly. Online community interaction does not affect value co-creation indirectly through community identity or flow experience, but rather through a chained mediator consisting of flow experience and community identity. (4) The effects of various types of online community interactions on value co-creation differ. (5) Prosocial motivation positively moderates the relation between community identity and value co-creation. At last, due to the findings of this study, this article makes practical suggestions for companies to manage and operate online brand communities to better encourage consumers to involve in value co-creation.

This thesis proposes and tests a path for online community interaction and psychological factors influencing value co-creation, as well as develops a model of online community interaction influencing customer involvement in value co-creation. This study confirms that online community interaction as well as value co-creation are chain intermediated by flow experience and community identity. It has been demonstrated that community identity and value co-creation are moderated by prosocial motivation. The thesis adds to the research connotation of value co-creation theory in view of interaction and psychology, and it deepens the theory. This study also applies flow experience and prosocial motivation to the study of online brand community, broadening the research scope and application fields of flow theory and motivation information processing theory. At the same time, the thesis offers a theoretical base for enterprises to guide the consumers in online brand community to more effectively take part in value co-creation.

As the market competition environment has changed, creating value with customers has become a way for firms to get a marking advantage, and the significance of client involvement in value creation has been widely recognized. Online brand communities have gotten a lot of attention in academia and business circles as a common platform for companies and clients to collaborate to create value. However, no scholar has conducted a thorough study on the mechanism of client taking part in value co-creation in view of online community interaction and psychological factors. The article conducts a research on the mechanism of online community interaction and psychological elements that encourage clients to take part in value co-creation to enrich the theoretical results and provide theoretical guidance for firms to conduct value co-creation.

This article investigates the influence path of online community interaction on value co-creation, the mediating role of community identity and flow experience, and the moderating role of prosocial motivation using the SOR (Stimulus-Organism-Response) model. First, this article develops a research model of online community interaction influencing client taking part in value co-creation and proposes hypotheses due to a thorough interpretation of the literature. Second, this article uses a questionnaire survey method to gather information from the online brand communities of mobile phone brands Xiaomi and Huawei. Third, this article uses SPSS and AMOS software to perform descriptive analysis of sample data, exploratory factor analysis, validity and reliability testing, path analysis, mediating effect and moderating effect testing to validate each hypothesis.

The research results show: (1) Online community interaction and community identity both have a direct impact on consumer taking part in value co-creation, and they directly influence value co-creation. (2) Flow experience does not directly influence value co-creation and does not serve as a mediator between online community interaction and value co-creation. To motivate clients to take part in value co-creation, the flow experience requires more community identity. (3) Online community interaction effect value co-creation directly and indirectly. Online community interaction does not affect value co-creation indirectly through community identity or flow experience, but rather through a chained mediator consisting of flow experience and community identity. (4) The effects of various types of online community interactions on value co-creation differ. (5) Prosocial motivation positively moderates the relation between community identity and value co-creation. At last, due to the findings of this study, this article makes practical suggestions for companies to manage and operate online brand communities to better encourage consumers to involve in value co-creation.

This thesis proposes and tests a path for online community interaction and psychological factors influencing value co-creation, as well as develops a model of online community interaction influencing customer involvement in value co-creation. This study confirms that online community interaction as well as value co-creation are chain intermediated by flow experience and community identity. It has been demonstrated that community identity and value co-creation are moderated by prosocial motivation. The thesis adds to the research connotation of value co-creation theory in view of interaction and psychology, and it deepens the theory. This study also applies flow experience and prosocial motivation to the study of online brand community, broadening the research scope and application fields of flow theory and motivation information processing theory. At the same time, the thesis offers a theoretical base for enterprises to guide the consumers in online brand community to more effectively take part in value co-creation.