Understanding antecedents of active product recommendations behaviour in online social networking communities

Abstract

The intention to promote voluntary product recommendation by individuals in the community during online social contact has aroused more and more interest. At present, in a network community composed of consumers, the reasons for personal active product recommendation by consumers are not obvious. In order to further explore the personal active product recommendation behaviour in the community during online social contact and the key factors that influence this behaviour, we have developed a model that, based on the Cognitive Emotion Theory, examines the reciprocal relationships in the community environment and the emotional impact of community homogeneity on the sense of community belonging and community receptivity, which ultimately influences the subsequent active product recommendation behaviour of individuals. The SEM-PLS technique was used to analyse the data collected from a questionnaire survey of 480 WeChat community users. The results of the study show that good community reciprocity and homogeneity have a positive impact on a sense of community belonging and receptivity, and these factors in turn have a positive impact on active product recommendation behaviour. The implications of these findings for both theory and practice are discussed, including the importance of fostering positive reciprocity and homogeneity in online communities to increase individuals’ active product recommendation behaviour. The findings provide insights for online community administrators on how to foster a sense of community belonging and receptivity, which can ultimately lead to a more active and engaged community.