An Empirical Study on the Consumer Motivations Participating in Virtual Brand Community

Based on the literature and in-depth interview, this paper proposes a model for indentifying the consumer motivations participating in virtual brand community. They are comprised searching for effective information, obtaining preferential treatment, seeking offline interaction, sharing post-purchase experience, and maintaining information quality. Moreover, their effects on consumer participation modes are also empirically investigated. The results demonstrate that three participation motivations are found to have effects on seeking participation and interactive participation, like seeking effective information, sharing post-purchase experience and maintaining information quality. The influences of obtaining preferential treatment and seeking offline interaction on the both are not found to have statistic significance. These empirical results highlight some managerial implications for inducing the consumer´s participation, as well as building attractive virtual brand community.