How Can We Enhance Member Participation in Virtual Communities?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find the factors that enhance member participation in virtual communities. Although there are many factors influencing member participation, this study limits its independent variables to those of managing strategy and information system quality. In addition to finding their direct impacts, this study identifies indirect effects through two mediating variables such as member visit and sense of community. The results of this study revealed that there was no significant direct path from managing strategy to participation. However, the path from sense of community to participation was strongly supported by the results. This then implies that a manager of a community has to emphasize the sense of community, membership in particular, in order to enhance participation. In addition, the results showed that sense of community could be enhanced by an appropriate managing strategy, while the number of visits could be increased by the information system’s quality.