تاثیر حمایت اجتماعی بر رضایتمندی و رفتار شهروندی مصرف کننده در جوامع تجاری درون خطی

ABSTRACT Effect of social support on customer satisfaction and citizenship behavior in online brand communities: The moderating role of support source

In the past, customers talked about products mainly with acquaintances and shop assistants. The scope of communication was limited by time and place (Wu et al., 2015) and was small for customers. The development of social media technology has brought huge changes. Today’s consumers can freely talk about products with acquaintances at a distance and like-minded strangers with common product interests in online brand communities. Online brand communities, which provide venues for customers to talk about products, have undergone a recent unprecedented development (Jung et al., 2014; Ho, 2015).

Customers often join online brand communities to seek support from others when they encounter product problems (Johnson and Lowe, 2015). Some customers who receive good social support exhibit prosocial actions, such as assisting other members in trouble, giving valuable feedback about shopping experience to the firm, and recommending the product to others. Groth (2005) called the voluntary and discretionary prosocial actions as customer citizenship behavior (CCB). Previous studies have proven that customers exhibit CCB after other customers give them socialemotional and instrumental support in a service establishment (Rosenbaum and Massiah, 2007). Social support is a context specific construct (Trepte et al., 2015). The pressure from social presence in online brand communities is low, and instrumental support from others is scanty because of the virtuality and anonymity of the network society. How social support influences CCB in online brand communities may differ from that in traditional service organizations. However, how social support precisely influences CCB in online brand communities remains unclear.

Moreover, customers can obtain social support both from firms and other customers in online brand communities because of the openness of the network society. Firms and other customers are different support sources. Social support is a multidimensional construct (Chiu et al., 2015). Different kinds of social support from different sources exert different influences on people (Mendonca and De Farias Junior, 2015). However, the different influences of different social supports on CCB of firms and other customers in online brand communities are not well understood. Today, online brand community is a popular platform for customers to obtain social support when they encounter product problems. CCB provides extraordinary value to firms (Ho, 2015). In addition, previous studies find customer satisfaction is an important antecedent of CCB (Bettencourt, 1997; Anaza, 2014). In order to understand how social support drives CCB in online brand communities when customers encounter product problems, this study develops a theoretical model to investigate the influence of social support on CCB through customer satisfaction. Moreover, the moderating role of support source (i.e., firms vs. other customers) is measured. Our findings can help companies take advantage of online brand communities to improve their business performance.