ABSTRACT
The objective of this chapter is to reach beyond existing theories and conceptual
frameworks of communities’ developmental processes in an attempt to search for new
insights regarding the role of rituals in these processes. Although electronic communities
(also called online communities, Internet communities, or virtual communities) are in
their infancy, they are predicted to exercise significant power in the future (Bickart &
Schindler, 2001; Hagel & Armstrong, 1997; Venkatraman & Henderson, 1998). Online
communities are among the most trafficked Web sites. For example, statistics have shown
that 6 of the 20 most trafficked Internet domains are primarily community based (Ward,
2000). Moreover, a study from McKinsey & Co and Jupiter Media Metrix (Brown,
Tilton, & Woodside, 2002) found that one third of the visitors to e-commerce sites used
community features such as chat rooms and bulletin boards. Furthermore, these users
make two thirds of all purchases at e-commerce sites. Also, site visitors who contribute to
community features are nine times as likely to come back to that site, and twice as likely
to make a purchase. Even users who read, but don’t participate in, the community
sections of an e-commerce site tend to come back more often and buy more often than
those who do not visit the community features at all. Thus, as the importance of online
communities grows, one of the most profound challenges for marketers is to understand
the dynamics of the relationships among community members and to develop appropriate
mechanisms as part of their business strategies.
