Effects of Personal and Social Factors on Consumers’ Participation in Virtual Communities

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Prof., Faculty of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

2 Ph.D. Student in Business Management, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabataba’i University,Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Nowadays virtual communities play significant role in different business aspects, which is why competition between virtual communities is growing; as a result studies which are conducted to determine factors affecting consumers’ participation attract specialist’s attention. The aim to write this article is considering personal and social factors which affect consumers’ participation in virtual communities.  In this respect, mixed method research (qualitative and quantitative) has been conducted in this study. First semi-structured interview with experts has been analyzed by directed content analysis technical, and then research model was tested by quantitative method. Quantitative research result has shown personal and social factors, especially which were identified exploratory had significant effect on consumers’ participation. Personal exploratory factors were consisting of; personality type, job expert, defects of real space, also identified social factors revealed that subjective norms, group norms and social identity had effect on consumers’ participation in virtual communities.
 

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Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Business Management
Volume 10, Issue 1
2018
Pages 121-144

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