One example is recent year’s development of virtual communities, which, by creating new or enhancing existing relationships between humans, actualize dimensions of social relationships previously not existing. Through the existence of virtual communities and other forms of experiential information technologies, conventional understandings of reality, communities, cultures, and representations a...

The Internet has spurred a phenomenal growth of virtual communities (VC). VCs can range from simple information exchange based forums to more complex networks supporting new product development. For example, communities of interest based forums such as investment-related Virtual Communities bring together individuals interested in exchanging information about stocks while online production comm...

Introduction Literature Review Definition of "Virtual Community" Motivations to Join a Group Information Exchange Aspect of Virtual Communities Social Support Exchange Friendship Recreation Methodology Bulletin Board Communities Virtual Community Sample Selection Data Collection Survey Response Data Analysis Discussion Implications Additional Research Epilogue Footnotes References About the Aut...

This study integrates the lens of social influence theory, virtual communities of practice, and practicebased view into a theoretical model to understand the role of social influence in B2B virtual communities in the collaboration of innovation activities with co-creating users. Specifically, the main goal of this study is to unravel the relationships among social influence, contribution behavi...

Virtual healthcare communities are incorporating social network features to motivate more participation. Using the lens of social identity theory, this study looks at how the social network structure of virtual healthcare communities influences participation via social identity. In specific, the effect of cognitive, emotional and evaluative components of social identity are investigated. Uncert...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore whether online communities meet their potential of providing environments in which social relationships can be readily established to help patients cope with their disease through social support. The paper aims to develop and test a model to examine antecedents of the formation of virtual relationships of cancer patients within virtual communiti...