The Formation Mechnism Of Members' Jingyou Behavior In Firm-hosted Virtual Communities

The rapid development of mobile internet technology and the upgrading of consumers' demand make firms to face unprecedented competition and challenges.For firms,if they would like to adapt the current market atmosphere and get better development,they need to seek a way of operation that not only obtain benefits,but also meet the needs of consumers.In this context,firm-hosted virtual communities emerge as the times require.Firm-hosted virtual communities are network communities initiated and established by firms,which aim at guiding firm-hosted users to participate in communication,and then obtain product creativity and reducing innovation costs.That is to say,firm-hosted virtual communities are not only the platform for community members to access information,build relationships and achieve self-worth,but also the carrier of firms to promote the development of products and enhance their influence.Thus,firm-hosted virtual communities have become a new operation strategy model pursued by domestic and foreign firms.Unlike traditional communities,firm-hosted virtual communities reduce the threshold of users'participation,and members can enter or quit communities freely by anonymous or real name,no matter what time and region.The interaction features of low threshold,low constraint community brings great convenience to members'communication,at the same time,it is difficult to predict that "competing to acquire knowledge and information,and excellent presentation behavior of members are sustained".In other words,how to maintain and promote community members to learn knowledge inside and outside the virtual community,and demonstrate self-excellence(i.e.Jingyou behavior)has become an important issue faced by firms when they operation and management of virtual communities.Jingyou behavior of members in firm-hosted virtual communities refers to an individual's initiative to explore,acquire and utilize knowledge(related to the community or firm product)to present themselves.This behavior can maintain community vitality,freshness,and promote sustainable development of firm-hosted virtual communities.In view of this,this study explores Jingyou behavior of members and the formation mechanism of Jingyou behavior of members in firm-hosted virtual communities through qualitative and quantitative research.This study conducted three main studies using literature review,interviewing method,grounded theory and survey.First,this study reviewed the literature of virtual communities and Jingyou behavior,then gave the definition and developed the scale of Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities.Second,based on the grounded theory,we analyses the influencing factors of Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities.Finally,formation mechanisms of Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities are tested by quantity study.Through these studies,the results showed as follows.First,Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities is a two dimensional structure,namely proactively learning and excellent presentation.Each dimension's ?coefficient was above 0.7.The two factor model was significantly better than single factor model.Second,through the grounded theory,this study found that the value co-creation of virtual community may affect the Jingyou behavior of communities' members through two paths.The intermediate variables of the first path are the individual basic psychological need(the need for autonomy,competence and relatedness)and the intrinsic motivation of the members,in which the psychological needs of the members include the need for autonomy,competence and relatedness,and the path variable of the second path is external motivations.In addition,the sense of community supported regulates the mediation of internal motivation and external motivation in the two pathways respectively.Third,this study further did quantative analysis.The results showed,for direct effect,the atmosphere of value co-creation had a direct effect on basic psychological needs,intrinsic motivation,and external motivation and Jingyou behavior of members in firm-hosted virtual communities.Meanwhile,basic psychological needs had direct effect on members' intrinsic motivation,and members' intrinsic motivation and external motivation had direct effect on members' Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities.For mediate effect,basic psychological needs in firm-hosted virtual communities played a mediate role between the atmosphere of value co-creation and the intrinsic motivation of members.The indirect effect of basic psychological needs on Jingyou behavior of members via intrinsic motivation,and the indirect effect of the atmosphere of value co-creation on Jingyou behavior of members via the basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation,In addition,the indirect effect of basic psychological needs on Jingyou behavior of members via external motivation.Finally,the sense of communities' support moderated the relationship between motivation and Jingyou behavior of members.Specially,the sense of communities' support moderated the relationship between members'intrinsic motivation and Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities,and moderated the effect of the atmosphere of value co-creation on Jingyou behavior of members via the basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation.Meanwhile,the sense of communities' support moderated the relationship between members' external motivation and Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities.Theoretically,first,based on perspective of behavior,this study investigated the structure of Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities and developed corresponding measurements,which contributes to the Jingyou behavior literature by filling the research gap that prior studies largely overlooked the measurement of Jingyou behavior.Second,based on the grounded theory,this study explored the influence mechanism of members' Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities.This was not only a new attempt to explore the Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities,but also enriches our understanding of the members'Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities.It was helpful to enlighten the future research and further excavate the cause or effect of members' Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities.Finally,through quantity analysis,this study further found the relationship between atmosphere of value co-creation,members'need,motivation,the sense of communities'support and Jingyou behavior.Specially,this study provided a new perspective for the research on Jingyou behavior,which was not only a useful supplement to previous studies,but also explained the micro internal mechanism of members' Jingyou behavior in firm-hosted virtual communities.Practically,the results indicated that enterprises needed to pay attention to create the atmosphere of value co-creation if they would like to members engage Jingyou behavior.Firms should consider to engaging measures,methods,and creating the atmosphere of value co-creation as an important thing.For example,firms released more information on soliciting product ideas,and give the corresponding details of incentive.Furthermore,firms and communities' managers needed to pay attention to communities' support.That is to say,firms and communities' managers should not only provide the corresponding professional knowledge to meet the needs of members for professional knowledge,but also encourage members to exchange,interact,and make members support each other.