Driving Factors for Virtual Brand Community Users’Behaviors of Participating in Value Co-creation

（Business School，Huaqiao University，Quanzhou 362021，Fujian，China）

Abstract：With the development of Internet and Big Data，consumers increasingly tend to make purchasing decision with the help of obtaining products information through digital channels and their experience. In order to effectively collect information of brand product，more and more enterprises，brand fans，or the third parties establish the virtual brand communities to build social networks taking brand product as the core for fans of the same brand. Virtual brand community is the platform for enterprises and consumers to realize value co-creation. Enterprises can interact with consumers ，get suggestions and feedbacks， learn creative ideas for new product，match consumers behaviors，and understand consumers’appeals；and consumers can also get information and other consumers’feedback here，which will have impact on their purchasing decisions and improve their using experience of products. To further clarify the driving factors for virtual brand community users’behaviors of participating in value co-creation and promote consumption transformation，the authors use the methods of questionnaire survey and Partial Least Squares analysis to find out the impact of product information demand，personal emotional demand，social interaction demand and economic demand on users’behaviors of participating in value co-creation under the situation of virtual brand community， integrated community，and the function of e-commerce. It is found that：economic demand is the key driving factor；and stronger product information demand and personal emotional demand will make users to be more active in participating in value cocreation. To better encourage users to participate in value co-creation in virtual brand community ，the enterprises should，first， optimize the content quality of the community and meet the users’product information demand；second，they should establish a material incentive mechanism to enhance the stickiness of community members ；third，they should establish an honor incentive mechanism to enhance individual members’sense of accomplishment；and fourth，they should develop the e-commerce function for virtual brand community to promote the transformation from brand consciousness to purchasing behaviors.

Key words：virtual brand community；value co-creation；economic demand；personal emotional demand；product informa⁃

tion demand