Explaining Members` Proactive Participation in Virtual Communities

Abstract

Understanding members` proactive participation in virtual communities is important to both academics and practitioners. This study extends virtual community research by proposing and testing a model that outlines the antecedents of members` proactive participation behavior and incorporates mediating mechanisms and moderating effects. The findings, based on both qualitative and quantitative data, reveal that social, hedonic, and utilitarian community attributes significantly influence proactive participation through community identification and relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, the conversion of community identification into proactive participation behavior depends on the public recognition of contributions. The authors conclude with some managerial and research implications.