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Emotional Support, Perceived Corporate Ownership and Skepticism toward Out-groups in Virtual Communities

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  • Johnson, Devon S.
  • Lowe, Ben

Abstract

Consumers often look to virtual communities for knowledge and support in overcoming the challenges they face. This article examines the role of emotional support in virtual communities that help participants to cope with personal challenges such as healthcare, financial or legal matters. It examines the potential for peer to peer emotional support experienced in virtual communities to generate skepticism toward related out-groups such as doctors and drug companies. It also examines the degree to which corporate ownership of the virtual community reduces the level of skepticism emotional support generates toward out-groups. Guided by predictions of social identity theory, we use data from 270 regular participants in healthcare virtual communities to show that emotional support does generate skepticism toward out-groups. However, we find that this effect is reversed when the virtual community is reported by participants to be corporate owned. We offer guidance to public policy makers on the potential negative consequences of skepticism and we provide advice to managers on how to counter skepticism and improve community stickiness.

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  • Johnson, Devon S. & Lowe, Ben, 2015. "Emotional Support, Perceived Corporate Ownership and Skepticism toward Out-groups in Virtual Communities," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 1-10.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joinma:v:29:y:2015:i:c:p:1-10
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intmar.2014.07.002
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    Cited by:

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    2. Wang, Weisha & Shukla, Paurav & Shi, Guicheng, 2021. "Digitalized social support in the healthcare environment: Effects of the types and sources of social support on psychological well-being," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    3. Tonya Williams Bradford, 2021. "We can fix this! Donor activism for nonprofit supply generation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 397-417, March.
    4. Pedeliento, Giuseppe & Andreini, Daniela & Veloutsou, Cleopatra, 2020. "Brand community integration, participation and commitment: A comparison between consumer-run and company-managed communities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 481-494.
    5. Yong Liu & Manting Li & Juanjuan Zhao & Haidong Yu, 2019. "Responding to environmental pollution-related online posts: behavior of Web surfers and its influencing factors," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 21(6), pages 2931-2943, December.
    6. Tseng, Hsiao-Ting & Ibrahim, Fahad & Hajli, Nick & Nisar, Tahir M. & Shabbir, Haseeb, 2022. "Effect of privacy concerns and engagement on social support behaviour in online health community platforms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    7. Dineva, Denitsa & Breitsohl, Jan & Garrod, Brian & Megicks, Philip, 2020. "Consumer Responses to Conflict-Management Strategies on Non-Profit Social Media Fan Pages," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 118-136.
    8. Bradford, Tonya Williams & Grier, Sonya A. & Henderson, Geraldine Rosa, 2017. "Weight Loss Through Virtual Support Communities: A Role for Identity-based Motivation in Public Commitment," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 9-23.
    9. Zhu, Dong Hong & Sun, Hui & Chang, Ya Ping, 2016. "Effect of social support on customer satisfaction and citizenship behavior in online brand communities: The moderating role of support source," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 287-293.

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