An Empirical Exploration of Virtual Community Participation: the Interpersonal Relationship Perspective

Virtual communities (VCs) have emerged as one of the most popular Internet services during the last decade and have been effective tools in knowledge management, customer relationship management, and other business related functions. The growth of VCs is crucial to VC operation, mainly depending on members and their participation. Few studies have offered a comprehensive theoretical framework to explain why people participate in VCs. This book aims to answer this question by proposing and empirically validating an exploratory theoretical framework from the interpersonal relationship perspective using two interpersonal behavior theories—the Triandis interpersonal behavior model and FIRO (Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation) to explain two types of VC participation—BOI (Behavior to Obtain Information) and BGI (Behavior to Give Information). Both theories can explain VC participation effectively, providing an interpersonal relationship framework for members'' participation. The interpersonal relationship framework has implications to VC organizers as well as VC researchers.

Dr. Honglei Li is currently a lecturer of Information Systems at School of Business & Economics, Swansea University, United Kingdom. She holds a BS in computational mathematics, a M.Phil. in information systems, both from Nanjing University in China, and a PhD in information systems from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.