Title: Structural equation modelling for influencing virtual community networks

Authors: Di Mu

Addresses: Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy, Zhong Jian Wen Yuan, No. 299, East Street, Zhengzhou, Henan 450000, China

Abstract: With the development of internet, the exchange of knowledge and information has been more convenient, and virtual communities with various themes have been formed. User stickiness has always been the focus of enterprises providing virtual community services. User stickiness refers to the tendency of users continuously using community services after their activity in virtual community; for enterprises providing virtual community services, enterprises are easier to gain profits if the users are more active in the community and have higher tendency of continuously using the community. This paper briefly introduced the stickiness and structural equation model of users in network virtual community, collected data using questionnaire survey, and made example analysis on the influencing factors of stickiness of users in network virtual community using structural equation model. The results showed that knowledge difficulty and environment had no significant impact on user usage, but had a significant positive impact on user satisfaction; competence matching, interpersonal relationship and knowledge quality had significant positive effects on user's usage and satisfaction; user usage and satisfaction had significant positive effects on user loyalty and user dependence reflecting user stickiness.

Keywords: virtual community; influencing factors; user stickiness; structural equation model.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2020.108631

International Journal of Web Based Communities, 2020 Vol.16 No.3, pp.249 - 261

Received: 18 Nov 2019
Accepted: 26 Dec 2019
Published online: 21 Jul 2020 *

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