Abstract
This paper studies the formation path of user trust in transactional virtual community, explores the relationship between website perception, merchant reputation and user's personal trust tendency and user's initial trust, and introduces the characteristics of internet word of mouth and sense of virtual community into the analysis framework from initial trust to continuous trust. This research used a quantitative design by developing questionnaires to collect data through the snowball sampling approach from 390 Chinese users of the well-known transactional virtual communities as research population, such as JD community, Dianping community, Tmall community, Xiaomi Forum, Dangdang - online reading community, etc. The results show that users' website perception, merchant reputation and personal trust tendency these three factors have significant positive effects on the formation of initial trust of users. And merchant reputation played the most important role in influencing initial trust of users than any two factors, followed by user's trust tendency and website perception. Besides, initial trust of users was shown to has a significant positive effect on continuous trust of users in transactional virtual community. Furthermore, the characteristics of internet word of mouth was found have significant mediation effect on initial trust and continuous trust of users. More specifically, 41.7% of the influence of the initial trust on the continuous trust was due to the internet word-of-mouth. The findings of this study provide transactional virtual community marketers and managers’ valuable insights into developing effective marketing strategies to improve their community’s service.
Highlights
According to the 45th Statistical Report on The Development of Internet in China released by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the number of Chinese netizens had reached 904 million, the number of online shopping users had reached 710 million, and the Internet penetration rate was 64.5% by the end of March, 2020 (CNNIC, 2020)
Chen et al (2008) established an initial trust model based on website features and seller reputation, and a continuous trust model based on relationship marketing and customer response, aiming at whether consumers have online shopping behaviors
We know that website perception has a significant positive impact on initial trust of users
Summary
According to the 45th Statistical Report on The Development of Internet in China released by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the number of Chinese netizens had reached 904 million, the number of online shopping users had reached 710 million, and the Internet penetration rate was 64.5% by the end of March, 2020 (CNNIC, 2020). With the help of the Internet, many businesses have established transactional virtual communities to provide consumers with platforms for transaction information transmission, product and service purchase and exchange and interaction, so as to expand sales and increased popularity. Word-of-mouth is a key factor for consumers to judge product information, and effective word-of-mouth communication positively affects consumer trust (Fan & Miao, 2012). Mcknight et al (2011) believed that the establishment of initial trust was important in different stages, and they pointed out that consumers' perception of website quality, perceived website risk, perceived merchant reputation and structure guarantee were the key factors to affect initial trust. Trust is the antecedent of virtual community perception, which in turn could enhance trust (Zhu, Li, & Liang, 2014). Rousseau et al (1998) proposed that trust goes through three different stages: initial, stable and fading. Mcknight et al (2011) believed that the establishment of initial trust was important in different stages, and they pointed out that consumers' perception of website quality, perceived website risk, perceived merchant reputation and structure guarantee were the key factors to affect initial trust. Chen et al (2008) established an initial trust model based on website features and seller reputation, and a continuous trust model based on relationship marketing and customer response, aiming at whether consumers have online shopping behaviors
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