Impact of Machine and Interpersonal Virtual Experience Combinations on Sense of Virtual Community: The Moderating Roles of Optimum Stimulation Level and Motives for Reading Customer Articulations

Providing an online virtual community may be one effective way to retain potential customers. Prior research indicated sense of virtual community (SOVC) exerts a significant influence on consumers' purchase intention. The effect of persuasive advertising mainly depends on the richness of virtual product experiences (VPEs). This study aims to analyze the relationships between different combinations of VPEs and SOVC. We conducted two experimental studies on two website to investigate the main effects and interaction. The result of the study provides evidence that different combination of interpersonal virtual experience with machine virtual experience would generate different SOVC. We also found the indirect effects of optimum stimulation level (OSL) and levels of motives for reading customer articulations between VPEs and SOVC variables (membership and immersion). Past related studies examined the advertising effects of VPEs chiefly on machine interaction (e.g., 3D advertising). This study is one of the first to examine empirically combinations of machine interaction with interpersonal interaction. This paper provides a review of the major perspectives in the concept of SOVC and 3D advertising or virtual reality. These punctuate the importance as well as the contribution of this paper.