Virtual Community: Concepts, Implications, and Future Research Directions; tables fit onto one page

Virtual communities (VCs) are places on the web where people can find and then electronically “talk” to others with similar interests. Being capable of increasing stickiness of the website, VCs have potential to form future business models especially in B2C. This research presents an integrated and conceptual understanding of VCs dividing it into three parts namely, virtual community (VC) evolution and formation, VC dynamics and VC application. This research also highlights the importance of VCs in relation to its application for building trust, relationship and commitment over internet. Due to their ability to make the site sticky VCs can be of benefit to both the customer and the marketer in many ways. This research reviews the benefits VCs can provide to the vendor/host in relationship marketing, building customer relationships, enhancing store image and customer loyalty.

[1]  L. Sproull,et al.  Atheism, sex, and databases: the net as a social technology , 1995 .

[2]  Starr Roxanne Hiltz,et al.  Asynchronous learning networks as a virtual classroom , 1997, CACM.

[3]  Marko Čupić,et al.  Online communities – Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability , 2003 .

[4]  Vijay Mahajan,et al.  The Economic Leverage of the Virtual Community , 2001, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[5]  Jenny Preece,et al.  Online Communities: Designing Usability and Supporting Sociability , 2000 .

[6]  S. Hunt,et al.  The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing , 1994 .

[7]  P. Blau.  Exchange and Power in Social Life , 1964 .

[8]  D. Fesenmaier,et al.  Defining the virtual tourist community: implications for tourism marketing , 2002 .

[9]  F. Dwyer,et al.  Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships , 1987 .

[10]  Jennifer Preece,et al.  One Foot in Cyberspace & the Other on the Ground A Case Study of Analysis and Design Issues in a Hybrid Virtual and Physical Community , 1999 .

[11]  David Gefen,et al.  Some antecedents and effects of trust in virtual communities , 2002, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[12]  Vicki L. O'Day,et al.  Widening the net: workshop report on the theory and practice of physical and network communities , 1997, SGCH.

[13]  Oren Etzioni,et al.  Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Communities, A Comparative Analysis , 1999, Inf. Soc..

[14]  Linda M. Harasim,et al.  A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community , 1993 .

[15]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  E-Commerce , 2021, Strategic International Restaurant Development.

[16]  Kevin Lane Keller.  Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity , 1993 .

[17]  Charles Møller,et al.  Proceedings of the Tenth Americas Conference on Information Systems , 2004 .

[18]  Jonathan Lazar,et al.  Classification Schema for Online Communities , 1998 .

[19]  N. Pliskin,et al.  Virtual communities and society: Toward an integrative three phase model , 1997 .

[20]  John Hagel,et al.  The real value of on-line communities , 1999 .

[21]  T. Andreassen,et al.  Customer loyalty and complex services: The impact of corporate image on quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty for customers with varying degrees of service expertise , 1998 .

[22]  Alexander Hars,et al.  Evolution of a virtual community: understanding design issues through a longitudinal study , 1997, ICIS '97.

[23]  R. Oliver.  Whence Consumer Loyalty? , 1999 .

[24]  Alfredo Zingale,et al.  New Economy Emotion: Engaging Customer Passion with e-crm , 2001 .

[25]  F. Rothaermel,et al.  Virtual internet communities and commercial success: individual and community-level theory grounded in the atypical case of TimeZone.com , 2001 .

[26]  B. Tuckman.  DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCE IN SMALL GROUPS. , 1965, Psychological bulletin.

[27]  G. Hutton.  Net gain: Expanding markets through virtual communities , 1998 .