The Bonding Mechanisms Of Members In The Virtual Community

With the increasing commercial value of virtual communities as an independent business model and the customer relationship management means, it has been the hotspot and focus in the extant research on online marketing. Connectedness characterizing the intensity of the interactive relationship(s) that members develop with virtual community and other members has great potential influence on members' participation behavior, however, what is the bonding in the relationships is still a theory gap. Based on the perspective of identity theory, this thesis developed the bonding mechanism model which connected the individual, role identity and the virtual group and its' impact on people's participation behavior,.Firstly, according to the identity theory and symbolic interaction character in virtual community, we explained the concept of the virtual identity, its relation with real self, and the psychological process in the back. We pointed out that the virtual identity contained both role-based identity and group-based identity, the former described the a process of self-presentation with the establishment of individual identity, which is to pursuit and complete of self-identification by role support; And the latter is self-categorization process with the establishment of a community identity, which is to complete the social identification by depersonalization. Then the construction and identification of the virtual identity will affected the emotional connection between members and virtual communities.After reviewing the bonding of personal relationship,psychological contract such as trust or commitment and group identity. This study advanced the emotional bonding system of attachment, viewing the virtual identity and its activities and relationship as the possession of the self according the deep interaction and the members' emotional characteristic. We employed the attachment theory to explain the ties between virtual community members and community, and distinguished the common-identity based attachment to the community as a whole and the common-bond based attachment to the people in the virtual community. This study constructed the structural equation model from the interactive activities of the virtual community to member's identification, then affecting their emotional attachment with the community and their participation behavior intentions based above theory and perspective. Empirical studies include the qualitative interviews, scale validation, pilot investigation and the main investigation conducted across the BBS community and the blog community.Research findings show that: (1) the survey-based study supports the proposed model, which demonstrates that the identity and attachment is the mediators in virtual community members to participate in community; (2) self-identification and social identification is co-existence in the process of the member's participation, and self-identity significantly affected member's social identification, which shows the partial medication of self-identification to social identification; (3) there are two different attachment mechanism in a virtual community, which are the common-bond based interpersonal attachment and common-identity based group attachment. The two attachment have different antecedents about personal identification and self-categorization respectively; (4) group attachment and interpersonal attachment have different effect on people's participation behavior intentions, interpersonal attachment affected off-line contact significantly, while group attachment mainly impacted the contribution behavior. However, both have positive effects on community participation and loyalty; (5) the type of community and the participation level of member moderates the consumer's reasons for participating.The theoretical and practical implications are discussed. In theory, this study developed the psychological process of virtual identity contructed and identification, and explained the different influence of role-based identity and group-based identity on people's participation intention. Furthermore, this thesis advanced the emotional bonding system and the connectedness mechanism from identification to attachment, also demonstrated the interpersonal attachment and group attachment and its' different impact on people's behavior. In the management implications, different types of targeted communities needs designing different operating policies to manage member's identification and bonds ,and the basic answer about how to develop the relationship with the community members is provided. Finally, the author pointed out the existence of some limitations, and proposed further study of a number of recommendations.