Creating the Word "Information Revolution", the rapid progress of information and communication technology are changing the life style of modern people. Among the symptoms of "Information Revolution", the most astonishing one is the increase of the nu...
Creating the Word "Information Revolution", the rapid progress of information and communication technology are changing the life style of modern people. Among the symptoms of "Information Revolution", the most astonishing one is the increase of the number of internet users. The number is currently increasing in geometric series, and thus the industry for the infrastructure is growing rapidly.
Marketers are paying attention to internet because of its economic potential. Internet has the potential of huge markets, new distribution channels, new tools of marketing communication, and new tools of marketing research. But, the economic activities in internet grows not so rapidly as the expansion of internet itself. The reasons are as follows,
① the lack of security
② the lack of proper means of exchange
③ uncertain definition of the property rights on internet
On the study, electronic community is proposed to a device to solve the problems. Electronic community defines as "a group or gathering of people who have common interests, by the computer mediated communication."
Electronic communities can be classified into communities of transaction, of interest, of fantasy, and of relationship. Such communities are not mutually exclusive, so a community can get the characteristics of 2 or 3 kinds of community. By establishing a border and setting the rules of community, an electronic community can solve the above three problems.
And it also broaden a firm's customer relationship activity. A firm which participate in an electronic community can provide customers with informations about its products, services to enrich usage behaviors. And it can identify customer's complaints and get ideas to design new products. The longer a customer participates in an electronic community, the stronger his/her loyalty to a firm concerned is.
Main results of empirical study are as follows,
① The higher the degree of relationship benefits and interaction(site-participant , inter-participant) of an electronic community is, the higher the level of commitment to that community is.
② The higher the degree shared values and interaction(site-participant, inter-participant) of an electronic community, the higher the level of trust to that community is.
③ The higher the level of trust to an electronic community is, the higher the level of commitment to that community is.
④ The higher the level of commitment to an electronic community is, the higher the participation on the community(information gathering activity, information building activity) and executing intention of the electronic transactions is.
⑤ The higher the level of trust to an electronic community is, the higher the participation on the community(information gathering activity, information building activity) and executing intention of the electronic transactions is.
From the empirical study, we know that a firm must make an electronic community by itself because a community should get a characteristic of exclusiveness. If a firm can manage an electronic community by itself, it can benefit from the community itself and can enhance the level of customer relationship.