Rapid growth of the internet and information technology help people communicate with others around the world through computers. The developing development of virtual communities¡]VCs¡^gather people with the same personalities in a VC website. VCs are not only a place of providing information and social contact for users, but also a precise market segment for marketers. The users of VCs are interested in the information provided within the VCs; therefore, marketers can reach potential customers in VCs more effectively. If the potential customers have high loyalty to a VC, they will consider the information provided by a VC as more important, their opinions on the product will be easily affected, and, ultimately, their purchasing decision will be influenced. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to analyze the loyalty of VC users to understand how VCs affect their purchasing decisions based on the EKB model by assuming VCs are external information sources, reference groups, and channels of post-purchase dissonance. Factors that affect VC users, including ¡uTechnology and Service¡v,¡uInformation Content¡v, and¡uEmotional Interact¡v, can be used to discover different types of loyalties of VC users and to understand if VC users are influenced by VCs when purchasing. A web survey was conducted on three VC websites discussing cosmetics¡]Fashion Guide, Urcosme and yam hercafe¡^,from January 18, 2008 to February 1, 2008 and received 416 valid samples. After analyzing the valid samples, the result suggested that¡G 1. ¡uInformation Content¡vis the most critical factor among the three factors of affecting loyalty of VC users. 2. VC users with a high level of loyalty who depend on the information provided by VC web sites consider VC websites as reference groups and are highly influenced by the site¡¦s recommendations 3. The users of high loyalty are affected by VC websites when purchasing. They search information in VCs before shopping, trust the information of VCs, are affected more easily by other VC users and recommend products to VC users or friends. Aside from this, they spend more time on the internet and VC websites than users of spurious loyalty. 4. The loyalty to and purchasing influence caused by a VC of female users are higher than male users as they consider the information provided by VCs more important. Users of low education levels have higher loyalties than those of higher education levels, however students are more easily influenced by VCs when purchasing.

This study uses Business Next magazine 2008 number one rating 3C product discussion group website Mobile01¡¦s ¡§open box experience¡¨ professional writers as study objects. The purpose of this study is to explore ¡§open box experience¡¨ sharing phenomenon and to understand writers¡¦ motivation and feedback in order to analyze the website management implication on this phenomenon. This study is based on soial cognitive theory, explores each dimension based on social cognitive theory and related items. The structure of this study includes people (capacity, attainment, enjoyment, positive feedback outcome expectation), environment (source of the product, exchange, feedback), behavior (the process of open box experience publication, reactions to feedback). This study adapts case study method. Researcher explored related journals, observed study object website. Based on the basic question categorization structure to construct interview questions, invited ¡§open box experience¡¨ experts and conducted open-ended expert in-depth interview. After each interview, the interview contents were typed into transcription. The transcription and the website data were used to describe ¡§open box experience¡¨ sharing phenomenon. Then the theme words which are related to the study were extracted from the transcription and became this study¡¦s basic elements. There are 264 themes extracted, coded and categorized in order to focus on the question. Finally, there are 252 effective themes selected and analyzed. Based on the major study findings, there are two conclusions: 1. The motivation of ¡§open box experience¡¨ writing is based on people¡¦s capacity, attainment and enjoyment. It also resulted by positive feedback outcome expectation by ¡§self purchase¡¨ or product source provided by online environment as well as exchange and feedback. 2. Negative feedback can result in keeping ¡§open box experience¡¨ writers from sharing and cause the lost of information for websites. Based on the above conclusions, this study provides suggestions to website owners, administrators, product vendors, ¡§open box experience¡¨ writers and readers. The suggestions can be used as references for website owners, administrators, product vendors when they are forming management strategies.

Virtual community has long been a hot topic in e-commerce that some people even think only virtual community management is the feasible way to develop e-commerce. Therefore, almost all types of websites intend to step into the virtual community management and the websites that completely emphasize on the community has been springing up like mushrooms. The cost for the construction of a virtual community website is not so high like that for any other type of website and the website techniques and commercial model are easy to be imitated and duplicated. So running a virtual website is not difficult, however, how to operate an active and successful virtual community needs not only efforts but also skills. For a virtual community, the value of community is built on the rich knowledge about community and the accumulation of knowledge about community depends on the knowledge-sharing among community members. Therefore, the promotion of knowledge-sharing behaviors in a community has been an important topic for the community operators. With social cognitive theory as the core, this research tries to explore the effects of the aspects of environment and individual on the knowledge-sharing behaviors by community members and understand the relationship between the knowledge-sharing behaviors as well as knowledge quality and the satisfaction and consumer behavior in the community. The results of research can be inducted into following points: 1) the ¡§knowledge-sharing behaviors¡¨ by the virtual community is primarily and positively affected by the ¡§identification-based trust¡¨, the ¡§self-efficacy of members¡¨, the ¡§expectation of personal results¡¨ and the ¡§expectation of community related results¡¨; 2) the ¡§self-efficacy of knowledge-sharing¡¨ by community members is positively affected by the ¡§identification-based trust¡¨; 3) the ¡§satisfaction¡¨ of the community members is positively affected by the ¡§knowledge-sharing behaviors¡¨, the ¡§knowledge quality¡¨; 4) the ¡§consumer behavior¡¨ by the community members is positively affected by the ¡§satisfaction¡¨ of the community.

This research presents empirical work which grounds the discourses of socially inclusive 'communities' in a 'global information society'. The empirical work focuses on a specific group of young people aged 11 to 25 living in one of the most ethnically diverse and poorest boroughs of London, Newham. The thesis explores the ways in which the group construct their 'online' community (Newham Young People Online) and how their identities as young people are re-produced through the interplay between their everyday and their technocultural lifeworlds. Key to the work is how the group is using and shaping ICTs and cyberspace(s), which are central to a 'global information society', in different ways: to explore creativity, to find diverse ways of self-expression, to understand 'difference' and to discover other spaces of learning and education against a background of social exclusion.

虛擬社群已成為社會的新興溝通平台，隨著網際網路的發展而日益茁壯。所謂虛擬社群意識，是指成員對於與虛擬社群之間關係的感覺，或是個人感覺到屬於某個包含其他人的虛擬團體。虛擬社群意識由數個構面組成，會受到某些虛擬社群本身俱有的特性所影響；此外，虛擬社群成員對社群的忠誠度是使虛擬社群擴大發展的必要條件，若虛擬社群成員擁有強烈的社群意識，對社群的忠誠度是否會增加? 本研究欲探討虛擬社群意識所包含的構面，再者欲證實虛擬社群特性、意識與成員忠誠度三構念之間的影響關係。研究對象為擁有參與虛擬社群經驗的學生以及上班族，採用便利抽樣，共計獲得135份有效問卷，以迴歸分析討論三構念之間的關係。 研究結果顯示，虛擬社群意識的構面可分成會員身份、影響力、沉迷度及意識認同；虛擬社群特性的構面則可分為領導者熱忱、離線活動及娛樂性。兩構念之間具有如下關係: 1. 離線活動能正向影響會員身份、影響力及意識認同 2. 娛樂性能正向影響會員身份、沉迷度及意識認同 此外，虛擬社群意識也被證實能夠影響虛擬社群成員忠誠度: 1. 會員身份能正向影響成員忠誠度 2. 意識認同能正向影響成員忠誠度 網路虛擬社群的興起為人們的溝通型態帶來重大的轉變，藉由虛擬社群特性、意識與成員忠誠度之間的關係探討，將能夠幫助虛擬社群經營者更加深入了解虛擬社群，懂得如何增強社群意識及成員對社群的忠誠度，掌握在虛擬世界裡成功的契機。 / Virtual community, growing with Internet, has become a popular communication platform in recent years. Sense of virtual community (SOVC) means a member’s feeling toward the virtual community where he/she takes part. SOVC is composed of several different dimensions, and it will be affected by some characteristics of virtual community itself. Besides, if a virtual community pursues expanding, members' loyalty to their virtual communities will be a necessary condition. We wonder whether a strong SOVC will affect a member's loyalty to his/her virtual community. The study generalizes the dimensions of virtual community first, afterward examining the relationship of virtual community's characteristics, sense and member's loyalty. 20-30 year old members, who have sufficient experiences of participating in virtual communities, are our target samples. In total, we have 135 effective questionnaires, and conduct regressions to do this analysis. According to the study result, SOVC can be divided into 4 dimensions: membership, influence, immersion and conscious identification. As for characteristics of virtual community, they can be separated into 3 dimensions: leader's enthusiasm, off-line activity and enjoyability. There are some relationships between these two constructs: 1.Off-line activity can affect membership, influence and conscious identification positively. 2.Enjoyability can affect membership, immersion and conscious identification positively. Besides,SOVC can affect member's loyalty (to his/her virtual community): 1.Membership can affect member’s loyalty positively. 2.Conscious identification can affect member’s loyalty positively. Virtual community has brought a huge change in ways of communication. The study discusses the relationship of virtual community's characteristics, sense and member's loyalty. Through understanding the study result, knowing the tips to increase SOVC and member's loyalty, organizers of virtual communities are able to handle community better. In the end, they can reach great success in the virtual world.

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / Este trabalho consiste na identificação de novas configurações sociais a partir dos meios digitais de comunicação, especificamente o Orkut. Buscamos compreender de que forma os deficientes físicos utilizam este instrumento com fins de socialização e pertencimento. Para isso, mapeamos as comunidades de deficientes físicos no Orkut e identificamos seus usos, além de realizarmos entrevistas com membros das comunidades em questão. Notamos que, diferentemente dos contatos mistos travados no mundo virtual, nas comunidades específicas de deficientes, eles expõem sua deficiência como marca que legitima o pertencimento ao grupo. Os contatos travados nessas comunidades não se restringem ao espaço próprio da comunidade, mas se estendem, não só por outros instrumentos do mundo virtual, mas também às relações no espaço físico. Notamos também que o maior interesse dos membros dessas comunidades é conhecer pessoas com quem eles possam se relacionar, utilizando o espaço virtual como conector, pelo qual se explora o perfil do outro e se apresenta, com fins de se expor. Essa utilização busca suprir a lacuna que há no espaço das cidades, que não oportuniza muitos encontros entre deficientes, enquanto o mundo virtual oferece essa possibilidade com fácil acesso. / Our aim in this research is to identify new social configurations that emerged from the digital media, specifically the Orkut. We try to understand how the physically disabled people use this instrument to get to socialize and belong to a group. For this purpose, we mapped the communities of physically disabled people in the Orkut and identified their uses, beyond interviewing members of these communities. We noticed that, in the communities that are specifically for disabled people, they expose their disabilities as a symbol of belonging, in a different way of the mixed interactions. The people who get to know each other in those communities dont socialize only in that specific space, but they maintain contact in other virtual and physical spaces. We also noticed that the main interest of the members of those communities is to get to know other people, so they can have relationships, using that virtual space as a connector, where they can explore the others profile and expose themselves. This way of using the community is an alternative to the gap that exists in the cities, that dont offer many opportunities of meeting. Meanwhile, the virtual world offers this possibility with easy access.

Peripheral members, or lurkers, make up the majority of membership in an online network, but not much is known about them as they are not publicly active (e.g. Post online). Data on the lurker population of Nurses and Health Care professionals in electronic Communities of Practice (eCoP) is also lacking. InspireNet was a British Columbia based virtual community that aimed to increase capacity for health services research for health care professionals. It had nearly 4000 members nationwide and it was an active community as users were posting on discussions and blogs daily. However, many members did not post online, so it was suspected a large lurker population existed. The purpose of the study was to conduct an exploratory study to understand the experience of lurkers on InspireNet and determine how nurses or health care professionals interacted, barriers to posting online, and whether or not they wished to remain a lurker Conventional content analysis was used as the methodology to conduct this qualitative study with 15 participants via online interviews. The results showed that lurking was not indicative of the level of engagement, as most were engaged in InspireNet content or were connected to other members (e.g. Core Members). Lurkers were not opposed to posting online, but required relevancy to their work and ease of using the website as prerequisites. Lurkers had difficulty finding information on the InspireNet website. It is important to engage all members of an online network. Strategies to engage lurkers include supporting their informational needs by improving website usability, incorporating advanced search features, and providing value (e.g. Relevant content, topics, and webinars). / Graduate

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / Este trabalho consiste na identificação de novas configurações sociais a partir dos meios digitais de comunicação, especificamente o Orkut. Buscamos compreender de que forma os deficientes físicos utilizam este instrumento com fins de socialização e pertencimento. Para isso, mapeamos as comunidades de deficientes físicos no Orkut e identificamos seus usos, além de realizarmos entrevistas com membros das comunidades em questão. Notamos que, diferentemente dos contatos mistos travados no mundo virtual, nas comunidades específicas de deficientes, eles expõem sua deficiência como marca que legitima o pertencimento ao grupo. Os contatos travados nessas comunidades não se restringem ao espaço próprio da comunidade, mas se estendem, não só por outros instrumentos do mundo virtual, mas também às relações no espaço físico. Notamos também que o maior interesse dos membros dessas comunidades é conhecer pessoas com quem eles possam se relacionar, utilizando o espaço virtual como conector, pelo qual se explora o perfil do outro e se apresenta, com fins de se expor. Essa utilização busca suprir a lacuna que há no espaço das cidades, que não oportuniza muitos encontros entre deficientes, enquanto o mundo virtual oferece essa possibilidade com fácil acesso. / Our aim in this research is to identify new social configurations that emerged from the digital media, specifically the Orkut. We try to understand how the physically disabled people use this instrument to get to socialize and belong to a group. For this purpose, we mapped the communities of physically disabled people in the Orkut and identified their uses, beyond interviewing members of these communities. We noticed that, in the communities that are specifically for disabled people, they expose their disabilities as a symbol of belonging, in a different way of the mixed interactions. The people who get to know each other in those communities dont socialize only in that specific space, but they maintain contact in other virtual and physical spaces. We also noticed that the main interest of the members of those communities is to get to know other people, so they can have relationships, using that virtual space as a connector, where they can explore the others profile and expose themselves. This way of using the community is an alternative to the gap that exists in the cities, that dont offer many opportunities of meeting. Meanwhile, the virtual world offers this possibility with easy access.

El consumo de películas del género de superhéroes en el cine ha ido en aumento con el pasar de los años expandiéndose a nivel mundial, y en parte, esto se debe a que los consumidores tienen al alcance de su mano varios dispositivos y plataformas por las cuales pueden investigar la película que desean ver antes de efectuar la compra. Para ello, Youtube se ha vuelto un canal indispensable y el principal cuando se trata de tener una fuente de información y opinión sobre las películas debido a que en esta plataforma se encuentran todos los trailers y principalmente debido a los ya conocidos “youtubers” o influencers digitales”, personas conocidas en un determinado ámbito o rubro que generan contenido ofreciendo información, opiniones, etc a sus seguidores y marcan una tendencia y estilo de vida que son imitados por las personas que se sienten identificados con estos líderes de opinión. Los youtubers logran influir en el consumo (o el no consumo) de las películas del género de superhéroes por medio de sus opiniones y gustos al respecto. Esto se demostrará o se refutará por medio de una investigación en base a la observación, entrevistas y focus group a las personas que conforman el centro de estudio, para de esta forma tener un análisis y una muestra real del tipo de influencia que los youtubers ejercen en sus seguidores para el proceso de consumo de este tipo de películas y que tan significativo es su aporte para su comunidad virtual de seguidores. / The consumption of films of the genre of superheroes in the cinema has been increasing with the passing of the years expanding worldwide, and in part, this is because consumers have at their fingertips several devices and platforms by which You can research the movie you want to watch before making the purchase. For this, YouTube has become an indispensable channel and the main one when it comes to having a source of information and opinion about the films because all the trailers are on this platform and mainly due to the already known “youtubers” or influencers digital ”, people known in a certain area or category that generate content offering information, opinions, etc. to their followers and mark a trend and lifestyle that are imitated by people who feel identified with these opinion leaders. Youtubers manage to influence the consumption (or non- consumption) of the films of the superhero genre through their opinions and tastes about it. This will be demonstrated or refuted by means of an investigation based on the observation, interviews and focus group to the people who make up the study center, in order to have an analysis and a real sample of the type of influence that youtubers exert in his followers for the process of consuming such films and how significant is his contribution to his virtual community of followers. / Trabajo de investigación

Online Communities of Practices (CoPs) is emerging as a major form for knowledge sharing in this era of information revolution. Due to the advancement of technology and ease of internet access in every part of the world, people began to get more and more involved in online CoPs to share knowledge. The defining characteristic of a Community of Practice is the interaction between members in order to jointly determine and embrace goals, eventually resulting in shared practices. Crucial to the success of a Community of Practice is the engagement between community members. Without engagement, a Community of Practice can not share knowledge and achieve its negotiated goals. To that end, there is a need to examine, why do people engage in an online discussion, what role domain experts play to keep on-line discussion alive and how to develop a ''right intervention'' to maintain and stimulate participants for engagement in on-line community. This thesis studied eight Communities of Practices that are being deliberately formed to facilitate knowledge sharing in the online community and describes an exploratory study of knowledge sharing within Communities of Practices (CoPs) by investigating eight CoPs - Start up Nation, All nurses, Young Enterpener, Teneric, SCM Focus, Systems Dynamics, Mahjoob and Alnj3 CoPs. The CoPs under investigation shared the following characteristics: permanent life span, created by interested members (i.e. bottom-up rather than top-down management creation), have a high level of boundary crossing, have more than 700 members who come from disparate locations and organizations, have voluntary membership enrollment, high membership diversity, high topic's relevance to members, high degree of reliance on technology, and are moderated. Data were gathered on the eight CoPs through online observations and online questionnaire survey. Results show that in each of the case study the most common type of activity performed by members of each CoP was sharing knowledge, followed by socialsing. Regarding the types of knowledge shared, the most common one across all CoPs was practical and general knowledge. The types of practical knowledge, however, varied in each CoP. The study also discovered that storytelling extensively enhances knowledge transfer and participants' interpersonal communications in eight communities under investigation. What were also notable in this study were the stories discussed in a CoP remains in the archive, what are more likely to generate interest and curiosity on the topic among inactive members who ultimately facilitates knowledge transfer. In this study it is also evident that successful topics with successful conclusion (in terms that the original query was answered) will not necessary get high responses and vice versa. An analysis of selected topics in the eight case studies has shown that some successful topics have few replies and vice versa, where many topics ended with open conclusion or they were unsuccessful in terms that the original query was not answered satisfactory. Therefore, it is not necessary that successful topic will get high number of responses as there are some successful topics which have limited number of replies. Overall, it is found that, topic may play a major role in the success of online discussion. It is observed in the study that members normally use short messages rather long messages and usually discusses more than one topic within one thread. Practical implications for knowledge sharing in online communities of practice were discussed, along with some recommendations for future research.