Sustainable co-creation behavior in a virtual community: Antecedents and moderating effect of participant's perception of own expertise

Abstract

Value co-creation by users in a virtual community is a key element of the community's value and sustainability. This paper first analyzes the effect on co-creation behavior of (1) users' altruism and (2) users' interactivity with the different firms housed in the virtual community. It considers different sustainable co-creation behaviors based on intensity, distinguishing between moderate or high intensity, where recommendation of the service represents a moderate level of co-creation and co-innovation at a high level. Both behaviors are oriented not only to the firms housed in the virtual community, but also to the virtual platformitself. Second, the study proposes whether users' perception of their expertise about the services and/or firms housed in the community exerts a moderating effect on the proposed modelling. Empirical contrast is performed using the virtual community TripAdvisor. This study contributes to current academic research on co-creation and sustainability. The results show that the user's altruism is the determining factor in encouraging moderate sustainable co-creation behavior (recommendation of the service), whereas user-firm interactivity is the critical antecedent for fostering high-level co-creation in the form of co-innovation activities. The results vary, however, depending on the segment of virtual community users analyzed (expert vs. non-expert). This study also contributes to formulation of business strategies to foster sustainable co-creation behavior with greater repercussions for long-term participation in the virtual community.