Hypothesis motive H2A H2b H3a H3 Risk reduction Reading H2B H2b H3a H3 Reduction of search time H3A H2b H3a H3 Determination of social position H3B H2b H3a H3 Resonance reduction H4 H2b H3a H3 Belonging to the community H5 H2b H3a H3 To learn what products are new H6 H2b H3a H3 To how a product is to be consumed H7A H2b H3a H3 Problem solving through the platform operator Posting H7B H2b H3a H3 Convenience of articulation H7C H2b H3a H3 H2a H2b H3a H3 Collective power H8A H2b H3a H3 Help others in their buying decisions H8B H2b H3a H3 Save others form negative experiences H9A H2b H3a H3 extraversion H9B H2b H3a H3 venting negative feelings H10 H2b H3a H3 Self-enhancement H11 H2b H3a H3 Social benefits H12 H2b H3a H3 H2a H2b H3a H3 Advice seeking H13 H2b H3a H3 Helping the company Table Hypothesis motive Activity Moderating effect H14A Determination of social position Posting Affective H14B Belonging to a virtual community Reading H14C Social benefits Posting H14D Positive self-enhancement Posting H15A To learn how a product is to be consumed Reading Informative H15B Advice seeking Posting H15C Help others in buying decisions Posting H16A Helping the company Posting Affective H16B Extraversion Posting Table Methodology
Gender -0,237 -0,088 0,102 Education -0,127 -0,077 0,140 Age 0,011 0,054 0,300 Hours online per day -0,016 -0,032 0,543 a. Dependent Variable: active participation Table Effect of motives and control variables (*P < 0.01,**P < 0.05, ***P < 0.1) Direct & interaction effect of product type After testing the direct effect between ‘motives’ and ‘active participation’, the moderating effect of ‘product type’ was tested. Again, the motive variable were used as a basis. In model 12 the variable ‘product type’ was added to the model, to test the direct effect on ‘active participation’ In we see that the dummy variable, which was added to the model, does not show support for a significant negative effect of ‘Informative products’ (Electronics) on the direct relationship. This indicates that the influence within an informative product context does not differ significantly from the influence within an affective product context. Moreover, the additional dummy variable did not have a large influence on the remaining variables. Model 12 Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients Sig. B Beta Positive expressions 0,310 0,230 0,000* Social benefits 0,232 0,172 0,001* Power through articulation 0,175 0,130 0,011** Product advising 0,140 0,104 0,044** Venting negative feelings 0,098 0,073 0,152 Electronics 0,111 0,041 0,434 a. Dependent Variable: active participation (*P < 0.01,**P < 0.05, ***P < 0.1)
To measure any moderating effect caused by the variable ‘product type’, each interaction variable was separately added to the model. Noteworthy is the transition of the effect of ‘Positive Expressions’ on ‘active participation’. This variable showed a significant effect (P < 0.01) in model 12, while in Model 13 the effect is largely explained by the interaction term. This implicates that ‘Positive expressions’ is a more important motivation within the context of informative products compared to the context of affective products. Therefore hypotheses H16a and H16b are not supported. All other interaction variables do not have a significant effect on active participation. Therefore there is no support for H14a, H14c, H14d and H16. Models Sign 13 14 15 16 17 Positive expressions + ,136 ,000 ,000 ,000 ,000 Social benefits + ,001 ,004 ,001 ,001 ,001 through articulation + ,015 ,011 ,203 ,013 ,012 Product advising + ,032 ,029 ,028 ,030 ,323 Venting negative feelings + ,177 ,171 ,122 ,445 ,128 Electronics * PE + ,027** Electronics * SB - ,332 Electronics * PTA + ,533 Electronics * VNF + ,882 Electronics * PA + ,566 Table (*P < 0.01,**P < 0.05, ***P < 0.1) The next step is to test the same motive variables, but this time within the context of each product category. Within each context, the direct relationship between the different motives and passive participation was measured. Within the context of informative products model 18 shows there is support for a direct and significant relationship between the dependent variable ‘active participation’ and the independent variables ‘Positive expressions’ (P < 0.01) , ‘Social benefits’ (P < 0.05), ‘Power through articulations’(P < 0.05) and ‘Product advising’ (P < 0.1). ‘Positive expressions’ has the strongest relationship with a standardized beta of .314. The weakest relationship is from ‘Product Advising’ with a standardized beta of .131. 18 Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients B Beta Sig. Positive expressions ,447 ,314 ,000* Social benefits ,179 ,131 ,047**
of the survey that was used. This will be explained when the limitations of the research are discussed. Looking at the motives, independently from the level of passive participation, there is evidence that some reasons apply more to informative products than to affective products. First of all, we find ‘Belonging to a virtual community’ to have a more positive (or less negative) influence on viewing. This confirms that affective products are more accommodating in assessing what kind of members are joining the community and whether the people in the community are ‘like-minded’. Second, ‘Risk reduction’ and ‘Reduction of search time’ appear to be more valued reasons within the context of informative Products. Reasoning could be that informative products are easier to evaluate on the basis of consumers articulations. active participation In case of active participation, four out of five motives seem to evoke Posting. This is according to what was expected in advance. However, ‘Venting negative feelings’ appeared no reason for people to post their opinions on the internet. Possible explanation is the aspect of catharsis as a form of revenge. People who have these kinds of emotions could merely act out of impulsive reaction, instead of rational. The survey construction was not based on previous experience, but on expected behavior. This could be the reason it was harder for people to predict such impulsive behavior. In contrast to the motives for passive participation, a moderating effect of the product type on one of the five relationships between motives and viewing was found. However, this moderating effect shows the exact opposite of the expected findings. ‘Positive expressions’ about affective products was expected to have a stronger influence on active participation. The affective attachment to affective products, due to the symbolic attributes these products often entail, was the reason for this discrepancy. The opposite result was found in Table 14. In contrast to the moderating effect, and in favor of previous reasoning, the mean score for this motivation was higher for affective products. In addition to the moderating effect of ‘Positive Expressions’ were other reasons to believe there is a noteworthy difference between the product types. As just mentioned, in comparing the likelihood of the different motives to occur, there was a difference between product types. Three motives were expected to differ amongst product types. The first