Does the host match the content? A taxonomical update on online consumption communities

Abstract

This article proposes a taxonomy of online consumption communities in order to address this rather ambiguously conceptualised research field. Specifically, intercommunity differences are investigated with regard to how content focus (brand vs activity) and its congruency with the type of host (doubled vs mixed) affect consumers’ posting behaviour. Based on an online survey (n = 888), a series of regressions of various benefits on posting behaviour supports the usability of the proposed taxonomy. In particular, social benefits had the strongest effect on consumers’ posting behaviour across all communities, while the effects of functional, altruistic and sharing benefits varied in significance and direction of influence when accounting for the different community characteristics. These findings help marketing managers to design online communities and motivate consumers to contribute.

Keywords:

• social media
• taxonomy
• firm-hosted
• consumer-hosted
• virtual community

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jan Breitsohl

Dr. Jan Breitsohl is a lecturer in marketing psychology at Aberystwyth University (UK). His academic interests focus on negative online communication and corporate response strategies, particularly complaint psychology, consumer-to-consumer conflicts and corporate crisis communication. He has consistently presented his research at international conferences and published in several peer-reviewed outlets.

Werner H. Kunz

Dr. Werner H. Kunz is associate professor of marketing and director of the Global Center for Digital Media and Innovative Services at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He received his doctorate from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. His research interests focus on social media, social networks, innovation and service marketing. His work has been published in, among others, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management and Computational Statistics and received several awards.

David Dowell

Dr. David Dowell is a lecturer in marketing at Aberystwyth, Wales (UK). His research addresses virtual environment satisfaction and complaints, trust in business relationships and arts marketing. In addition to publishing in journals such as Industrial Management and Regional Studies, he has received research grants from various bodies, including the Arts & Humanities Research Council UK.