ABSTRACT
Introduction While the term ‘virtual community’ may be relatively new, the concept is not. Such a conception existed even in the early days of e-mail when researchers used the online medium to exchange ideas and information and to collaborate on research projects. For example, the Unix operating system and its derivatives, Sendmail software, and other similar products were developed collaboratively as ‘open source software’ on the online medium (e-mail, Usenet discussion boards) by researchers and programmers who hardly interacted with each other face-to-face. Many online services also provided local bulletin boards for special interest groups (SIGs) to exchange content. Later, as the World Wide Web environment began to grow, many off-line communities (for example, those centred around magazines) started gravitating towards the Internet to take advantage of its connectivity and reach to help their communities grow. In addition, many unique communities began to form on the Internet itself. These early communities were centred mainly on noncommercial interests and activities. However, as commercial use of the WWW increased, many Internet communities have been formed that cater to members’ or organizers’ commercial interests. Thus, there are
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nized and maintained by third parties who act, on the one hand, as intermediaries between the members and, on the other, as marketers and advertisers. Given the empirical evidence and trends, it is clear that communities will be playing a very important role in the growth of electronic commerce. The focus of this chapter is to explore this potential of virtual communities – to complement e-business – viewing them as important intermediaries. We describe how virtual communities organized for business motives differ from other types of communities and explore conditions under which such business-oriented virtual communities can evolve successfully. We argue that, in order to ensure a healthy growth, virtual communities should increasingly take on the role of an intermediary in
1 exchange relationships between community members, and 2 exchange relationships between community members and marketers
and advertisers.
