1. Investigating the Process from Needs to Connect to
Active Participation in Online Communities:
Focusing on the Roles of Social Identity and High
Quality Connection
Advanced Industrial Psychology
By Eun Hee Ko
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2. Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Research Background and Hypotheses Development 4
The Motives for Participation in Online Communities
Quality of Connections
Social Identity
Research Methodology 10
Data Collection and Analysis
Measures
Implications 12
References 13
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3. Introduction
People are gathering in online communities to fulfill their desires to interact with or
help others. With this new phenomenon, marketers have become more and more interested in
learning about, organizing, and managing online communities on their internet venues
(Bagozzi & Dholakia, 2002), viewing online communities as consumer groups of varying
sizes that meet and interact online for the sake of achieving personal as well as shared goals
of their members (Dholakia, Bagozzi, & Pearo, 2004).
Researchers have examined various themes with regards to online communities (virtual
communities) or brand communities on a basis of diverse theories such as social network
theory, life cycle models, or motivational theories. For example, Muniz and O Guinn (2001)
investigated the characteristics, processes, and particularities of three online brand
communities - Ford Bronco, Macintosh, and Saab – and found traditional markers of
communities: shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility.
Szmigin, Canning, and Reppel (2005) studied about how online communities enhance the
relationship within internet communities, developed a conceptual framework that enables
greater understanding of the contributions of service delivery and online communities in the
development of bonds in interactive relationships, and found three key elements of the
framework: service value, technical infrastructure and interactivity.
All in all, the purpose of this paper is to present a framework for understanding
participating behaviors in online communities. There are a lot of lurkers in online or online
communities, whereas there are also participants or activists there. So, here is the key
question of this paper; what makes people participate or behave in online communities?
Especially, this study is interested in whether or not the quality of connections between
organizations (online communities here) and people and the ones among people in the
organizations play an important role in making the people active participants. This paper also
focuses on the issue about how social identity operates in the process from the needs to
participation to behaviors of active participation in online communities.
There are a number of studies regarding participating behaviors in online communities,
for instance, “Antecedents and purchase consequences of customer participation in small
group brand communities” by Bagozzi and Dholakis (2006), but little attention has been paid
to the mechanism of how participants become active members of online communities or of
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4. how the participants become to have commitment or loyalty to the communities.
This paper proposes that high quality connection among members within online
communities is an important factor in increasing the participations of members in online
communities. It also proposes that a participant’s social identity strengthened by high quality
connection is another important factor in making the participants active community members
in online community.
High quality connection is normally studied in general relationship contexts among
people or organizational contexts. For example, using broad definition of connection quality,
including emotional affect, reciprocity, mutuality, interdependence, and mutual motivation to
be responsive, Higgins and Kram (2001) developed a framework illustrating factors that
shape developmental network structures and offer propositions focusing on the
developmental consequences for individuals having different types of developmental
networks in their careers. In a more business context, Naude and Buttle (2000) examined high
quality dimensions in business-to-business relationship and found five underlying
dimensions: trust, needs fulfillment, supply chain integration, power, and profit.
This paper hypothesizes that the high quality connection affecting relationship among
people or some subjects in off-line spaces also has influence on relationships in on-line
spaces. It also examines the concept of social identity in the online community context, which
was introduced by Tajfel (1971) and refers to “the individual’s knowledge that he belongs to
certain social groups together with some emotional and value significance to him of this
group membership”. Regarding the concept of social identity, this article is interested in the
tie between social identity and participation behaviors in online communities.
This article first examines the previous researches with regards to the antecedents of
being participants of online communities, high quality connection, and social identity. Then,
theoretical framework is developed concerning the process from the needs to participation in
online community to active participating behaviors. Finally, methodology will be discussed in
this research proposal.
Research Background and Hypotheses Development
The motives for participation in online communities
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5. Many scholars have investigated the motives for participation in the online
communities in diverse fields, such as psychology, marketing, communications, or human
computer studies. Some of them have suggested hierarchical needs theory (Maslow, 1943) as
an appropriate method of understanding and supporting users of online communities. For
example, Grosso (2001) asserted that the hierarchical needs theory can be useful in
explaining that individuals may fulfill some of their needs in online communities.
Dholakia, Bagozzi, and Pearo (2004) stated that people participate in online
communities broadly for two motives, individual motives and the motives driven by social
influences. In their model, the authors hypothesized and proved that such antecedents as
purposive value, self-discovery, maintaining interpersonal interconnectivity, social
enhancement, and entertainment value give people the motivations to gather in virtual
communities. Bishop (2006) proposed a conceptual framework regarding what drives
individuals regularly participate to online communities and act there. They developed the
framework in three levels describing what drives such individuals to carry out actions such as
posting messages and adding content (level 1), the cognitions they use to determine whether
or not to take such actions (level 2) and the means to by which they go about carrying out the
action in the environment (level 3).
On the other hands, rather than seeing online communities as independent types of
communities, Koh et al. (2007) viewed online gatherings through communities as extensions
of offline engagements and examined leaders’ involvement, level of offline interactions, and
usefulness drive affect the level of virtual community. Indeed, Sangwan (2005) suggested
more comprehensive constructs of participation motives of online communities. Investigating
previous research with regards to virtual community usage, Sangwan (2005) drove three
constructs of the usage, which are functional needs fulfillment of required uses by quality of
content, emotive needs fulfillment and acceptance of relationship building through interaction
and communication in virtual environment, and contextual needs that relate to individual user
specific expectations and experiences beyond and other than functional and emotive needs.
As described above, people connect to online and get in with certain motives. As a result, I
expect that:
H1a: Functional needs motivate people to participate in online communities.
H1b: Emotive needs motivate people to participate in online communities.
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6. H1c: Contextual needs motivate people to participate in online communities.
Quality of Connections
Network theory has a long academic tradition in sociology or organizational studies.
Pioneer of social networks in the late 1800s include Emile Durkheim and Ferdinand Tonnies.
Durkheim (1897), in his study regarding suicide and religion, gave a non-individualistic
explanation of social facts, arguing that social phenomena arise when interacting individuals
constitute a reality that can no longer be accounted for in terms of the properties of individual
actors. Specifically, Durkheim (1897) explored the differing suicide rates among Protestants
and Catholics, explaining that stronger social control among Catholics results in lower
suicide rates. His studies were the first ones which investigated certain phenomena, which
had been previously considered as individual ones, from non-individualistic perspectives, and
had influenced on many related studies such as network theories or relationship studies.
As related study, there is a study about ties. Mark Granovetter (1973) examined weak
ties, saying that more numerous weak times can be important in seeking information and
innovation. Specifically, he argued that weak times enable reaching populations and
audiences that are not accessible via strong ties. This was probably the first study which
examined the degree of strength of ties or connections among people.
The study regarding quality of connections has been rather recently studied by scholars.
Such themes as influences and characteristics of high or low quality connection have been
heavily studied especially in organizational context. Although there is no universal definition
about connection quality and the concept needs more work, several definitions have been
referred to in organizational or network studies. For example, Granovetter (1973) defined
connection strength in sense of the emotional weight of the attachment or by emotional
weight coupled with reciprocity and frequency of communication, and Higgin and Kram
(2001) employed the concept in terms of emotional affect, reciprocity, mutuality,
interdependence, and mutual motivation to be responsive.
This article adopts the definition used by Dutton and Heaphy (2003). The authors
defined the quality of connection in terms of whether the connection is life-giving or life-
depleting, and explained the features of the actual connection of between two people and the
subjective and physiological experiences of high-quality connection. Especially, their
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7. investigations regarding subjective experience of high-quality connection are adopted as
elements which positively affect participants of online communities. This article hypothesizes
that subjective experience of individuals in high quality connection in online communities
positively influence on being active participants. According to Dutton and Heaphy (2003),
people in high quality connections share three subjective experiences: feelings of vitality and
aliveness, positive regard, and mutuality. One of the purposes of this article investigates what
roles the subjective experiences of high quality connection in off-line spaces play in on-line
spaces. Therefore, the three hypotheses with regards to the mediators between participating
behaviors and high quality connection and high quality connection are as follows:
H2a: Feelings of vitality mediate positive influence on formatting high quality connections
among members in online communities
H2b: Positive regard has positive influence on formatting high quality connections among
members in online communities.
H2c: Mutuality has positive influence on formatting high quality connections among
members in online communities.
H3: High quality connection leads to higher level of participation behaviors in online
communities and vice versa.
Social Identity
Tajfel (1971) first developed the concept of social identity, which refers to “the
individual’s knowledge that he belongs to certain social groups together with some emotional
and value significance to him of this group membership”: how a system of social
categorizations “creates and defines an individual’s own place in society”. Turner el al.
(1992) broadened social identity theory by developing the self categorization theory, which
specified how social categorization creates prototype-based depersonalization of self and
other and, thus produces social identity phenomena.
Dholakia, Bagozzi, and Pearo (2004) investigated the concept of social identity in a
marketing context. According to them, social identity captures the main aspects of
individual’s identification with the group in the sense that the person comes to view himself
or herself as a member of the community, as “belonging” to it. Adopting the concept of social
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8. identity involving cognitive, affective, and evaluative components (e.g., Bergami & Bagozzi,
2000; Ellemers et al., 1999), Dholakia and the colleagues (2004) examined how social
identity works in online spaces such as virtual communities. Specifically, they studied the
relationship between the levels of value perception s and the strength of social identity
concerning the virtual communities and the relationship between the strength of social
identity and the levels of we-intentions to participate in the virtual community. Bagozzi and
Dholakia (2006) studied the antecedents and purchase consequences of customer
participation in small group brand communities and proposed the model incorporating social
intentions, three aspects of social identity (cognitive self-awareness of membership in the
brand community, affective commitment, and evaluative significance of membership),
anticipated positive and negative emotions toward achieving of failing to achieve group
participation goals, and desire as a transformative mechanism translating reasons for acting
into social intentions to do so.
Like the studies above, this study also has the purpose to examine the role of social
identity in online spaces. Specifically, this study is concerned about whether or not social
identity is formed in online communities through participation behaviors, whether or not the
social identity can be strengthened by high quality connection among people or between the
organizations (online communities) and their members within online communities, and
whether or not the strengthened social identity has positive influence on the degree of
participation in online communities. Accordingly, following hypotheses have been generated:
H4: People within online communities will have social identity through participation in
online communities.
H5: Social identity formed in online communities is strengthened by high quality connections.
H6: Strengthened social identity leads to higher level of participation behaviors in online
communities and vice versa.
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9. Figure 1. A Framework of the Process from Connecting Needs to Active Participating Behavior
Feelings of
+
vitality
High quality
connections
Functional need +
Positive regard +
+ +
Active
Mutual Participation
+ Participation
commitment
Behavior
Emotive need Behavior
+
+
+
Social
Social identity identity
Contextual need
formation + Strengthened
Connect to online Participate online Actively Participate to online
community community community
Activity flow in online communities
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10. Methodology
Data Collection and Analysis
Survey will be conducted for this study via online questionnaire. Respondents will be
randomly selected in several major online communities in South Korea. Each respondent will
receive email with a link to the online questionnaire attached. The email with completed
survey will be taken back to an investigator. The structural equation modeling (figure 1) will
be run using LISREL program.
Measures
Antecedents of connection to online communities
To measure the motivations of why individuals connect to online communities, the
measurement developed by Sangwan (2005) is utilized. There are three constructs in this
measurement, which are functional needs, emotive needs, and contextual needs. First
functional needs mainly measure 1) information need, including ‘objective information’,
‘information of high value’, ‘information for my exact needs’, ‘expert information’,
‘information from opinion leaders’, and ‘trust information for investments’. Second, emotive
needs consist of three subordinate ones: 1) social interaction, 2) personal uses, and 3) self
expression uses. Social interaction includes ‘visit threads’, ‘enjoy discussion and
participations’, ‘enjoy virtual companionship’, ‘interaction with people’, and ‘large number
of membership’. Personal uses contain such items as ‘meet peer group’, ‘easy to find people
in a community’, and ‘meet industry leaders and influential people’. Last subordinate element
of emotive needs, self expression uses, includes ‘express my knowledge’, ‘reader and a
contributor’, and ‘moderation of content’. The last construct of the measurement is contextual
needs consisting of 1) entertainment and 2) host. Entertainment contains such items as ‘chat
groups’ and ‘the site surfing and navigation’. Host includes ‘rules and regulations’ and
‘postings from CEO’.
Mediators of Participation Behaviors and High Quality Connections
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11. 1) Feeling of Vitality
The scale of feeling of vitality is adopted from the study by Ryan and Frederick (1997).
The scale consists of two factors. The first factor contains seven energy-related items and the
second factor consists of six items related to having interests, goals, and purposes.
2) Positive Regard
Proper scale concerning positive regard cannot be found from previous literature for this
study. In the future, the scale will be developed from near concepts such as a feeling of being
known or being loved, and attachment.
3) Mutual Commitment
In this article, mutual commitment is defined as an individual’s perception of the degree
of commitment that exists in his/her relationship with the organization and the one that exists
among people. The scales measuring perceived organizational support, which refers to
organization’s commitment to individuals, are adopted from the study of Kessler and Purcell
(2004), consist of nine items capturing individual’s perception of his/her organization’s
commitment to them. The scales of organizational commitment measuring organizational
commitment, which refers to individual’s commitment to the organization, are also adopted
from Kessler and Purcell (2004)’s study. This scale consists of seven items. It is highly
possible that the items in these scales will be adjusted in the future. In addition, the proper
scale for mutual commitment among people in online context cannot be found from previous
researches so that the scale will be developed in the future.
Quality of Connections
The scales measuring the quality of connections in general relationships among people
cannot be found from previous studies. Relatively, there are several scales measuring the
relationships between customers and service providers or between customers and firms in
marketing context. One scale measuring the relationship quality between customers and firms
is expected to be used for this study after being adjusted properly in online community
context. The scale, which was developed by Roberts, Varki, and Brodie (2003), measure the
quality of relationship between customers and firms in five dimensions: trust in integrity, trust
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12. in benevolence, commitment, affective conflict, and satisfaction.
Social Identity
The measurement of social identity is adopted from the study by Dholakia, Bagozzi,
and Pearo (2004). The measurement consists of three kinds of social identity, which are
cognitive social identity, affective social identity, and evaluative social identity; each of them
includes two measurement items. Specifically, cognitive social identity items ask what degree
your self0image overlaps with the identity of the group of friends as you perceive it and how
you would express the degree of overlap between your personal identity and the identity of
the group you mentioned above when you are actually part of the group and engaging in
group activities. Affective social identity items ask how you are attached to the group you
mentioned above and how strong you would say your feelings of belongingness are toward
the group you mentioned above. Evaluative social identity items ask how much you think you
are valuable member of the group and how much you think you are important member of the
group. Each item will be measured on a basis of seven-point “agree-disagree” scale.
Implications
The results of this research will have several theoretical and practical implications in
positive organizational scholarship and online marketing. First, this article suggests that high
quality connection and social identity, which have been mainly studied about off-line spaces,
can be applied to on-line spaces. For example, authentic leadership, which is one of important
issues in positive organizational scholarship, can be a very interesting topic in virtual
community study. Extending the results found in this article to online world, this study will
suggest a number of new research themes regarding positive organizational scholarship and
online spaces. Second, scholars in marketing field have paid little attention to positive
scholarship, and there are very limited studies regarding it. In fact, such concepts as quality of
connections and social identity are very new to marketing scholars. Yet, as this study shows,
positive scholarship gives a number of research themes to marketing scholars. Indeed, this
article provides marketing scholars with another insightful study field. Finally, this research
provides marketing practitioners with important insights with regard to online communities
and positive organizational scholarship. Today, online communities are more essential
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13. marketing tools than ever. Consumers are flourishing there, and swift practitioners already
use them as critical marketing tools. Therefore, deeper understandings conducted in this study
will give a lot of implications to marketers. For instance, through encouraging high quality
connections among members or between web sites and members within online communities
and developing diverse marketing strategies with in-depth understanding of them, marketers
can have numerous benefits.
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