An Empirical Study of the Antecedents and Consequences of the Ordinary Member's Commitment in Virtual Communities

This paper proposes and tests a new model that helps explain the ordinary memberpsilas commitment in virtual communities with reference to the research of organizational commitment. We adopt three subcomponents of commitment presented by Meyer and Allen, and then build the model to reflect the relationships between each commitment and variables identified as its antecedent or consequences. The theoretical model is empirically tested using data collected from 213 virtual communitiespsila members. We find that self-efficacy and irretrievable investments are key factors that significantly and directly influence affective commitment and continuance commitment respectively. Affective commitment affects both participation intention and contribution intention significantly. Continuance commitment affects advocacy intention significantly. Normative commitment affects contribution intention significantly. The empirical test provides support for the whole research model. The findings have important implications for both researchers and practitioners.