Research On The Impact Of The Virtual Brand Community Characteristics On Customers' Willingness To Co-create Value

With the development of service-oriented logic,attracting customers to co-create value has become the source of sustained competitive advantage for enterprises.Because of the dual attributes of virtual community and brand community,virtual brand community has played an important role in establishing brand image and strengthening communication with customers,and has become an important platform for value cocreation.Therefore,it is particularly important to explore the factors affecting customers' willingness to co-create value in the virtual brand community to grasp customers' demands.The solution to these problems can help enterprises to create an appropriate customer participation environment,thus stimulating customers' willingness to co-create value in the virtual brand community,and providing theoretical and practical guidance for the realization of the role of the virtual brand community.Based on the systematic review of related literatures at home and abroad,this thesis defines the characteristics of virtual brand community as information quality,participation return,system quality and virtual interaction.Combined with S-O-R theory,a conceptual model of brand community characteristics influencing customers' willingness to co-create value is constructed and intermediary role of relationship quality is explored.Based on the elaboration likelihood model,the virtual brand community characteristics are divided into central path factors(information quality)and peripheral path factors(participation return,system quality,virtual interaction).Self-efficacy is introduced as elaboration likelihood to explore the moderating role of self-efficacy between the virtual brand community characteristics and the relationship quality,so as to elaborate the different perceptions of customers with different selfefficacy towards virtual brand community.An empirical research is conducted to verify research hypotheses and conceptual models in this thesis.The results show that information quality,participation return,system quality and virtual interaction have significant positive effects on relationship quality.The virtual brand community characteristics will positively affect the customers' willingness to co-create value through the relationship quality.Specifically,relationship quality plays a complete intermediary role in the relationship between information quality and customers' willingness to co-create value,and a partial intermediary role in the relationship between participation return and customers' willingness to co-create value,system quality and customers' willingness to co-create value,and virtual interactivity and customers' willingness to co-create value.Selfefficacy plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between the central path factor(information quality)and relationship quality,and plays a negative moderating role between the peripheral path factors(participation return,system quality,virtual interaction)and relationship quality,while moderating the mediating role of relationship quality between the peripheral path factor and customers' willingness to co-create value,but the moderating effect of the mediating effect of relationship quality between information quality and customers' willingness to co-create value has not been verified.Finally,based on the research conclusions,this thesis puts forward corresponding management suggestions,in order to better guide enterprises to build and operate virtual brand communities.