Exploring community satisfaction, identification and reciprocity norm for customer value co-creation: insights from virtual brand communities
Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics
ISSN: 1355-5855
Article publication date: 31 May 2024
Issue publication date: 2 December 2024
Abstract
Purpose
User value co-creation behaviors are crucial for the sustainable development of Virtual Brand Communities. This research, grounded in social exchange theory, investigates the impact of community satisfaction and identification on customer value co-creation behaviors and further explores how the reciprocity norm moderates these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Our research data were collected from users across multiple brand communities, totaling 481 survey responses. Structural equation modeling was performed to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
These results provide in-depth insights into the nexus between user-community relationships and customer value co-creation behaviors. While community satisfaction and identification positively influence co-creation, their effects vary across different value co-creation behaviors. Notably, the reciprocity norm within the community dampens the relationship between community satisfaction and value co-creation behaviors.
Originality/value
Unlike previous studies focusing on customer value co-creation behaviors, our research emphasizes social exchange, unveiling the mechanisms behind customer value co-creation. Our findings not only enrich the body of knowledge on customer value co-creation but also deepen our understanding of online collective behavior and knowledge sharing, offering valuable insights for the development of virtual communities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
We are grateful for the constructive suggestions provided by Professor Ian Phau and the anonymous reviewers. This research was supported by the Key Project of the National Social Science Fund of China (21AJY016), the Major Project of the Social Science Achievement Appraisal Committee of Hunan Province (XSP21ZDA010), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72302084), the Philosophy and Social Science Planning Program of the Changsha Social Science Federation (2023CSSKKT05), the National Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2023JJ40193, 2024JJ6164), and the Guangxi Philosophy and Social Science Planning Research Project (22BGL018).
Citation
Liu, Y., Lu, X., Xiong, Z., Wang, B., Yao, Z. and Luo, L. (2024), "Exploring community satisfaction, identification and reciprocity norm for customer value co-creation: insights from virtual brand communities", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 36 No. 11, pp. 3155-3177. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-01-2024-0054
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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