Different Roles, Different Strokes: Organizing Virtual Customer Environments to Promote Two Types of Customer Contributions
研究在线客户论坛中，社会资本、社会交换、参与度和社会认同理论如何解释客户对社区（产品支持）和公司（产品创意）的不同贡献，发现论坛设计应匹配贡献类型。
In recent years, many companies have established virtual customer environments (VCEs) that offer facilities ranging from online discussion forums to virtual product design centers to partner with their customers in product development and product support activities. In this study, we focus on one form of VCE, online customer forums, and propose that the relevance of four distinct theoretical perspectives—social capital theory, social exchange theory, involvement, and social identity theory—to explaining customer participation will be contingent on the nature of the customer contribution context, that is, whether the contributions are to the customer community (through product support) or to the company (through product ideation). We propose a model suggesting that customers' prosocial behavior and expectations of private rewards will shape contributions to the community, whereas their perceived innovation partnership with the company and expectations of private rewards will shape a contribution to the company. We also contend that these effects will be moderated by customers' identification with the community and with the company. Our empirical findings offer support for the model and indicate that online customer forums (and more broadly VCEs) should be tailored to fit the nature of customer contribution sought. Implications for research and practice in customer co-innovation, online peer-to-peer communities, and customer relationship management are discussed.