The influence of familiarity, trust and norms of reciprocity on an experienced sense of community: an empirical analysis based on social online services

The growing use of social online services raises the question of what encourages members to participate actively and maintain accumulated social capital. Our research has particularly become aware of the relevance of familiarity, trust and reciprocity in understanding the members' sense of a vi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBehaviour & information technology Vol. 34; no. 4; pp. 392 - 412
Main Authors Sanchez-Franco, Manuel J, Roldan, Jose L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Taylor & Francis 03.04.2015
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Business
Communities
Community support
Empirical analysis
familiarity
Least squares method
Mathematical analysis
Mathematical models
Norms
norms of reciprocity
Online
online social services
perceived community support
Receiving
Reciprocity
Social capital
Social networks
Trust
User behaviour
Virtual communities
Virtual reality
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Summary:The growing use of social online services raises the question of what encourages members to participate actively and maintain accumulated social capital. Our research has particularly become aware of the relevance of familiarity, trust and reciprocity in understanding the members' sense of a virtual community (VC). Familiarity and trust are efficient criteria to assess and determine the extent to which one should engage in a virtual relationship. Furthermore, the effort of sharing experiences and knowledge must be based on the expectation of receiving certain returns. A structural equation modelling, specifically partial least squares, is proposed to assess the relationships between the constructs. Overall, the empirical results provided strong support for the hypotheses. Familiarity and trust lead the member to develop a growing perceived community support (PCS) and significantly influence the sense of a VC. Norms of reciprocity directly influence affective trust and PCS. Higher familiarity does not moderate the impact of affective trust on PCS, however. The results of this study could thus help social online service providers to create a successful business model and to determine the main drivers of the members' sense of a VC.
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ISSN:0144-929X
1362-3001
DOI:10.1080/0144929X.2014.959455