Toward a Taxonomy of Virtual Communities from a Value Cocreation Perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe enormous growth that social networks have experienced in recent years has caused firms to begin to view social networks as enabling environments for supplier–customer interactions. It has been argued that company behavior influences customer participation; however, this notion has rarely been investigated. Therefore, the purpose of this research is twofold as follows: to determine if there are differences among virtual communities regarding customer participation and define the main factors that can cause differences in cocreated value. We used the perspective of grounded theory to analyze seven communities on Facebook that focus on a single product. Our results confirmed the existence of four types of communities. Additionally, community structures and goals were highlighted as the key factors that differentiate communities and affect customer interactions.