Key elements of building and developing online communities

With the advent of the internet marketing has seen a reinvention of the idea of communities in the form of online communities. In the last decade online communities emerged that are centred around specific interests or hobbies, co-production, learning platforms, consumption and brands. Online communities present a new and innovative way for marketeers to tap into user feedback, create deeper relationships with consumers and supply personalised offerings. However creating and developing a virtual community can be an expensive and risky process. While many researchers have analysed independent elements that are important for community development, marketing science is still lacking research into how these elements work together to create successful communities. The focus of the research project is to deepen the understanding of virtual communities and how they are created, developed and sustained. The dissertation develops a conceptual model for both the elements and processes involved and tests the model through the primary research. The research method uses unstructured interviews and critical incident technique with the creators of six virtual communities and 1-4 users of each community. All participants were encouraged to speak about their positive and negative experiences and creators of virtual communities were asked to speak about their experiences with setting up and growing the virtual community. A total of 19 interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed. All bar one element identified in the conceptual chapter were found during the interviews which gives the previously independently analysed elements further validation. Evidence for different stages in the development of communities was found, however the process is much more fluid than anticipated. This dissertation recommends that further research is carried out in the area of virtual community development.With the advent of the internet marketing has seen a reinvention of the idea of communities in the form of online communities. In the last decade online communities emerged that are centred around specific interests or hobbies, co-production, learning platforms, consumption and brands. Online communities present a new and innovative way for marketeers to tap into user feedback, create deeper relationships with consumers and supply personalised offerings. However creating and developing a virtual community can be an expensive and risky process. While many researchers have analysed independent elements that are important for community development, marketing science is still lacking research into how these elements work together to create successful communities. The focus of the research project is to deepen the understanding of virtual communities and how they are created, developed and sustained. The dissertation develops a conceptual model for both the elements and processes involved and tests the model through the primary research. The research method uses unstructured interviews and critical incident technique with the creators of six virtual communities and 1-4 users of each community. All participants were encouraged to speak about their positive and negative experiences and creators of virtual communities were asked to speak about their experiences with setting up and growing the virtual community. A total of 19 interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed. All bar one element identified in the conceptual chapter were found during the interviews which gives the previously independently analysed elements further validation. Evidence for different stages in the development of communities was found, however the process is much more fluid than anticipated. This dissertation recommends that further research is carried out in the area of virtual community development