The impact of social capital on the creation of customer participation value in virtual brand communities

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the effect of social capital on the contributions of knowledge and the behavior of citizens towards customer participation and value co-creation in virtual brand communities. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study uses structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyse 213 questionnaires in order to validate a model that is based on social capital theory. This method examines the assumed theoretical connections assessing both the direct and indirect impacts of social capital on customer engagement in value co-creation. Findings: The findings indicate that social interaction ties, principles of reciprocity and trust and a shared vision of social capital positively influence customers' knowledge contribution behaviors and citizenship behaviors for engaging in value co-creating in virtual brand communities. Conclusion: The study concludes that societal capital plays a significant role in customer participation in value-creating behaviors within the communities of virtual brands. Research Limitations/Implications: The main limitation of the study is the potential bias of self-reported data and it proposes to conduct a longitudinal study to dynamically understand customer engagement value co-creation and explore the interactions between dimensions of social capital. Practical Implications: The study points out that strengthening social capital in virtual brand communities can motivate customers to participate more in knowledge contribution and civic behavior, thereby enhancing value co-creation. Therefore, companies should aim to strengthen interaction, trust and shared vision within the community to drive this process. Contribution to the Literature: This study expands the existing research on value co-creation by revealing the mechanism of social capital influencing the participation of customers in value co-creation in virtual brand communities.


INTRODUCTION
The development of information technology has rapidly propelled social media to become a primary marketing channel for enterprises, thus revolutionizing the interaction patterns between enterprises and consumers (Meng, 2017;Shen & Jia-Jing, 2018).Businesses establish online brand communities to support creative activities like product creation, new product development and product feedback in order to connect customers more intimately.This strategy has effectively transformed the role of consumers from passive receivers to active contributors in value co-creation (Sawhney, Verona, & Prandelli, 2005).An increasing number of enterprises are fostering social interactions with consumers by creating virtual brand communities to attract consumers and gather valuable feedback on products or services (He & Yan, 2015;Shen & Jia-Jing, 2018).This interactive approach not only

Communities of Virtual Brands
The virtual brand community has grown quickly and developed into a crucial platfor m for value co -creation as a result of network technology's continuous advancement.A virtual brand community is an online platform that has been independently created by companies, brand partners or other parties to give customers who share an interest in a brand access to and share brand-related information (Brodie, Ilic, Juric, & Hollebeek, 2013;Liao, Lin, & Wei, 2019;Shi & Zhang, 2023 ).Jang, Olfman, Ko, Koh, and Kim (2008 ) ar gue that busine sse s can reach consumers through vir tual brand communities, e ngage with consumers continuously and stay in touch for continuous feedback.Brodie e t al. (2013) argue that consumers, busine sses and other ac tors must deve lop virtual br and c ommunitie s for the gre ater benefit in order to enhance co -cre ation.W ang, Ma, and Li (2015) argue that vir tual br and c ommunitie s transcend the limitations of time and space allowing all br and stakeholder s to build strong, we ak and dynamic relational connections.Zhao-hui, Qing-Juan, and Bing (2019) define it as the br and loyalty that par ticular brand enthusiasts have to a business and how they enjoy connecting with the c orpor ate brand community.The relationship between me mber s of the virtual br and community revolves around the br and itself inc luding creating and maintaining the community (Gr uner, Hombur g, & Lukas, 2014).This gives businesses advice for enhancing the products or services provided by collecting input from customers on both novel ideas and current goods and services.In addition, businesses can learn about customer demands in the community which enables the m to recognize and address each customer's distinctive requirements and provide better customer service (Rodríguez-Lópe z, 2021 ).In a nutshell, researchers believe that familiar brand goals, ne twork technology, efficient user communication and virtual brand communities are required to realise the value creation of these communities.This paper argues that vir tual brand communities have the typic al charac teristic s of vir tual and br and communities and me mbers c an freely join or leave the internet and its elec tronic networ k me dia.The se communitie s can be funded by businesses or brand managers or they c an arise spontane ously fr om c onsumer de mand.It dr aws on the perspec tive s of Muniz and O'guinn (2001) and Ming, Xinhua, and Yongshun (2021 ).This kind of community mainly centers on sharing consumer experiences, common interests or e motions and builds a close social network.

Social Capital
As described in the previous literature review on value co-creation in virtual brand communities (Meek, Ogilvie, Lambert, & Ryan, 2019;Zhao, Lu, Wang, Chau, & Zhang, 2012), social capital facilitates communication among community members, fosters their s ense of belonging and consequently promotes their behavioral participation (Sheng & Hartono, 2015).Social capital is "the sum of actual and potential resources embedded within the social networks of individuals or social organizations from which actors can draw upon their network connections (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998).Coleman (1988) and other social science and humanities researchers primarily developed and propagated this concept.Social capital is widely used in virtual branded communities to explain interactions and networking resources between community members.Despite variations among scholars in the definition and conceptualization of social capital in virtual brand communities (Jeong, Ha, & Lee, 2021), it is generally acknowledged that social capital emanates from the relational structures among members of virtual brand communities (Chiu, Hsu, & Wang, 2006;Meek, Ryan, Lambert, & Ogilvie, 2019).This research refers to the three-dimensional model of social capital proposed by Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) bas ed on the above discussion.A virtual brand community's social capital is a multi-dimensional structure that is influe nced by three distinct aspects: the structural, relational and cognitive dimensions.The structural dimension draws on the social interaction and connection dimensions of Chiu et al. (2006) and Tsai and Ghoshal (1998) which mainl y reflect the frequency and intensity of interactions between members of a vir tual brand communities (Chiu et al., 2006).Relational social capital draws on the two dimensions of trust and reciprocity norms of Tsai and Ghoshal (19 98) and Chiu et al. (2006).Reciprocity is a vital nor m and is integral to members' ongoing engagement in the comm unity (Mathwick, Wiertz, & De Ruyter, 2008).Cognitive social capital draws on the shared vision and common langu age of Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998); Tsai and Ghoshal (1998) and Chiu et al. (2006).Shared language is related to a common language or code used by community members in an online brand community (Liao & Chou, 2012).A shar ed vision represents a shared social nor m, belief or ground rule that governs the behavior of members in an online brand community (Meek, Ryan, et al., 2019).In addition, a large number of previous studies have confirmed that social capital is essential for bringing about multiple positive relationship outcomes including competitive intelligence (Kalra, Agnihotri, & Briggs, 2021), knowledge sharing (Zhang, Zhu, & Wang, 2019), collective efficacy (Collins, Neal, & Neal, 2014) and user loyalty (Zhang, Zhou, Zhan, & Zhou, 2021).Therefore, it is of great value to delve into the various aspects of social capital in the context of vir tual brand communities and their impact on customer engagement value co -creation as it profoundly impacts the quality of communication, knowledge sharing and the establishment of consumer -brand relationships.Social capital is a critical facilitator of member communication, belonging and engagement in virtual brand communities (Meek, et al., 2019;Sheng & Hartono, 2015;Zhao et al., 2012).Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) define social capital as the resources accessible within social networks.Coleman (1988) and other social science and humanities researchers primarily developed and propagated this concept.Although definitions vary (Jeong et al., 2021), there's consensus that social capital arises from the relationships within these communities (Chiu et al., 2006;Meek, et al., 2019).This study focuses on social capital from three angles: structure, relationships and cognition using the research framework (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998).We use the social interaction connections defined by Chiu et al. (2006) and Tsai and Ghoshal (1998) to measure the frequency and intensity of interactions between community members.The relational dimension draws on the nor mative principles of trust and reciprocity from Tsai and Ghoshal (1998) and Chiu et al. (2006) which are important foundations for community engagement.The shared vision and common language of the cognitive dimension draw on research (Chiu et al., 2006;Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998) which play an important supporting role in mutual understanding and norms within communities (Liao & Chou, 2012;Meek, et al., 2019).

Customer Participation in the Co-Creation of Value Behaviors
Value co-creation refers to the interaction between customers and companies integrating the resources each provides and ultimately achieving value creation (Cova, Pace, & Skålén, 2015).Yi and Gong (2013) divide value cocreation into two dimensions: customer engagement behavior and customer citizenship behavior.Verifying that the value co-creation behaviour of virtual brand communities among customers has a note worthy effect on

Research Hypotheses 3.1.1. Structural Dimensional Societal Capital and Customer Involvement in Value Co-Creation Behavior
Structural social capital is mainly measured through social interaction connections, reflecting the social network's structural traits.The social interaction connection in a virtual community refers to the time spent, interaction frequency and intimacy between members reflecting members' relationship structure and intimacy based on social interaction.When social interaction is more vital, members spend more time and energy on social interaction and are more willing to share their expertise to assist other members in solving problems.In addition, when the social interaction among community members is strong, the more intense, frequent and comprehensive the information exchange, the more it can promote the feedback behavior of me mbers.Finally, when the social interaction bond is more robust, the intimacy of the relationship between members is higher and this strong relationship promotes recommendation behavior.Based on this, this study suggests that Hypothesis H1a: Social interaction connection positively affects knowledge contribution behavior.Hypothesis H1b: Social interaction connection positively affects customer citizenship behavior.

Relationship Dimension Societal Capital and Customer Participation in Value Co -creation
Relationship behavior dimension and societal capital are the interpersonal relationships between participants in social activities such as trust, reciprocation etc. Chiu et al. (2006).Trust in a virtual community refers to the belief among community members that others are willing to abide by the community's rules and obligations to one another.The reciprocity nor m means that the virtual community exchanges are mutual and fair.According to research, when members of a community trust one another, they are more anxious to participate in group activities and offer their expertise or assistance.This can encourage more honest communication among members and the sharing and discussion of information.Trust in the virtual community will enhance his purchase intention including recommending this virtual online community to his relatives and friends (Zhe & Zhong-Dong, 2018).Similarly, when community members feel that this reciprocity norm exists within a virtual community, they will be more ready to comment on or suggest the community to others because they want to maintain it.Based on this, this study suggests that Hypothesis H2a: The principle of trust reciprocity influences knowledge contribution behavior.Hypothesis H2b: The principle of trust and reciprocity positively influences customer civic behavior.

Cognitive Societal Capital and Customer Participation in Value Co-Creation
The shared vision in the virtual community describes individuals in the organization as having similar goals, interests, and values.This connection enables individuals on the network who may not know each other to engage in interactive behaviors together.Studies have shown that members of an organization are more willing to exchange and share resources with members who share common goals and values.A shared vision can be seen as a link between different members of the community (Tsai & Ghoshal, 1998).Cohen and Prusak (2002) proposed that members who share values and objectives are probable to work well together and exhibit behaviors that are advantageous to the organization.When community members in a virtual community have similar objectives and values, they are more willing to donate their resources to assist others and aid in the community's promotion.
Based on this, this study suggests that Hypothesis H3a: Shared vision positively affects knowledge contribution behavior.Hypothesis H3b: Shared vision positively affects customer citizenship behavior.

Research Model
This section will detail the structure and components of the model used in the study.It will elaborate on how the model puts into practice the theoretical concepts of social capital and customer engagement in value co -creation within virtual brand communities.

Data Gathering and Samples
We selected the Xiaomi community and the Huawei Pollen Club which have large and active user bases for this study.Twenty-nine of the questionnaire's questions were assessed using the Likert scale which ranged from 1 to 5. The scale's endpoints were labeled "strongly disagree" and "strongly agree" respectively.The questionnaires are mainly designed as electronic questionnaires through the questionnaire star.Questionnaires with links to complete them will be sent out to the community after they have been evaluated by community manage ment.Interested parties will be encouraged to participate by giving out red envelopes and point awards.The questionnaire collection process lasted for one month (2022.05.08-2022.06.20).Moreover, the questionnaire "Please write down your real registered user name" is designed to confirm that the respondents are par t of the virtual brand community.Check the items to ensure that the respondent's identity is correct.Incomplete answers and illogical responses: 217 valid surveys were obtained out of a total recovery of 256 questionnaires after excluding unqualified questionnaires such as false identities.Table 1 depicts the sample distribution.with values closer to 1 indicating a better fit.These indices will collectively help us determine the robustness of our model and the reliability of our findings.

Analysis of Reliability and Validity
Since the scales were all derived from existing studies, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed to assess the v alidity and dependability of the measurement model.The item's level of consistency or stability is referred to as rel iability which primarily reflects the level of consistency of the measurement item.The internal cor relation of the m easurement item will also be higher if the reliability is higher.Internal consistency was used to determine whether t he data in this study were trustworthy.The questionnaire was appropriate if Cronbach's alpha coefficient was abov e the threshold of 0.7.Table 2 shows that Cronbach's α coefficients for all variables are more than 0.8 indicating hi gh consistency.This study used validation factor analysis to examine structural, convergence and discriminating vali dity.The fit indices including X2/df, RMSEA, SRMR, NFI, IFI, CFI, and TLI were assessed to deter mine the quality of f it for the measurement model.The X2/df value of 1.472 is less than the threshold of 3 indicating a good fit.Similarl y, the RMSEA value of 0.047 is below the recommended cutoff of 0 .08suggesting a satisfactory fit.The SRMR value of 0.065 also falls within the acceptable range of 0 .08.Additionally, the NFI , IFI, CFI, and TLI values of 0.893, 0.963, 0.963, and 0.959, respectively, all above the minimum threshold of 0.8 further supporting the conclusion that the measurement model demonstrates a good fit.Table 2 demonstrates that all measurement items exhibit factor loadi ngs larger than 0.5.Each variable has a combinatorial reliability (CR) value surpassing 0.8 and each variable's Aver age Variance Ex tracted (AVE) exceeds 0.5 demonstrating the measuring scales' high convergence validity.In this stu dy, the square root of the AVE for each variable surpasses its correlation coefficient with other possible variables a s presented in Table 3 and the measurement model has better differential validity.Therefore, all of the study's varia bles have passed the reliability test which shows that the measurement model is appropriate.

Structural Equation Test
We used AMOS 23.0 to perform additional structural equation modelling in order to test the hypothesis.Table 4 shows a pathway analysis of potential variables which shows that social interaction links have a substantial beneficial impact on the contribution of knowledge (β = 0.238, p < 0.01) indicating the presence of H1a; the principle of trust reciprocity exerts a substantial positive impact on the contribution of knowledge ( β=0.216, p<0.01) demonstrating the establishment of H2a.Common vision has a notewor thy and favorable impact on the contribution of knowledge (β= 0.182, p < 0.01), therefore confirming the establishment of hypothesis H3 a. Social interactions positively affect customer citizenship behavior (β= 0.288, p < 0.001) confir ming the establishment of hypothesis H1b.The trust and reciprocity principles favor customer citizenship behavior (β=0.237,p <0 .001).
Common vision influences customer citizenship behavior (= 0.328, p 0.01) indicating that H3 b is established.In a nutshell, the hypotheses H1a, H1b, H2a, H2b, H3 a, H3b, H4a, H4b, H5 a, H5b, H6a and H6b have been validated in this study.(Zhang, Lu, Wang, & Wu, 2015), trust (Wong, 2023), and co-creation of experience (Zhang, Shang, Li, & Chen, 2020).It has also examined the interplay between these factors and customer stickiness (Ren, Yang, Zhu, & Majeed, 2021;Zhang, Guo, Hu, & Liu, 2017), loyalty (Fang, 2019) and the cohesiveness of brand communities (Sanz-Blas, Bigne, & Buzova, 2019).However, there is still insufficient research on the role of social capital in virtual brand communities and its relationship with social networks.The results of this paper show that social capital has a significant and positive impact on promoting customer par ticipation in value co-creation behavior in three dimensions: structure, relationship and cognition.This is in line with recent research that highlights the critical role of social capital as a thriving online brand community particularly in facilitating practical resource and information sharing among members thereby creating value for the community and the brand (Chi, Harrigan, & Xu, 2022;Meek, et al., 2019).Therefore, this paper constructs a theoretical framework based on social capital theory aiming to expand the application of social capital theory in virtual brand communities and further deepen the und erstanding of customer participation in value co-creation in virtual brand communities.This research brings a new perspective to the academic community and provides practical guidance for businesses on fostering and promoting consumer engagement in virtual brand communities.This study aims to explore the impact of social capital on value co -creation behavior.The results show that social capital has a positive impact on consumers' participation in value co-creation behavior in ter ms of structure, relationship and cognition.
This study provides a new dimension for understanding consumers' participation in value co -creation behavior in virtual brand communities and makes important theoretical contributions through the unique perspective of social capital.Although previous studies have examined the factors that influence consumer engagement motivation such as social support (Liu et al., 2020;Shirazi et al., 2021;Tajvidi et al., 2021), website characteristics (Zhang et al., 2015),trust (Chen, Yuan, & Zhu, 2021) and co-creation experiences (Zhang et al., 2020) but the role of social capital and its relationship with social networks have not been explored enough.The findings of this paper highlight the significant impact of social capital on customer engagement in co-creation, consistent with the latest research revealing the key role of social capital in the development of online brand communities especially in facilitating the

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Research model on the impact of virtual brand community social capital on customer participation in value co-creation.

Figure 1
Figure1serves as a blueprint for empirical research outlining two hypothe tical paths by which the dimensions of social capital (structure, relationship and cognition) influence customer participation in value co-creation: knowledge contribution behavior and customer citizenship behavior.The model integrates previous empirical findings and theoretical perspectives to test the strength and nature of these relationships using structural equation modeling (SEM) to provide a visual and statistical representation of complex interactions.

Table 1 .
Yi and Gong (2013)al (1998)iable scales are based on scale measurements from earlier literature research and changed to fit the actual situation of this study.With a total of 11 questions, the social capital scale measurement is primarily comprises thr ee variables of social interaction, trust and shared vision drawing on the measuring scales ofTsai and Ghoshal (199  8),Chiu et al. (2006)andNahapiet and Ghoshal (1998).Measuring knowledge contribution and customer civic behavior primarily depends on the measurement scales of C hou et al. (2016) andYi and Gong (2013)which have 18 items.Table2displays the variable settings and the outcom es of the confirmatory factor analysis.

Table 2 .
Variable measurement and confirmatory factor analysis.

Table 3 .
Distinguishes validity and related coefficients.** indicates a significant correlation at the 0.01 level (both sides).The diagonal position is the square root of the AVE value Note:

Table 4 .
(Liu, Xiao, Fang, Zhang, & Lin, 2020;Shirazi, Wu, Hajli, Zadeh, & Lin, 2021;Tajvidi, Wang, Hajli, & Love, 2021)'s research objects.It investigates how social capital affects brand customers who co-create value behavior inside virtual brands' communities.The three elements of societal capital exert a notable and favorable impact on two aspects of consumer participation in value co -creation based on the findings.This research aims to deepen the understanding of customer participation in value co-creation behavior in virtual brand communities and expand the theoretical foundation of this field from the perspective of social capital.It attempts to explore the impact of social capital on customer participation in value co-creation behavior within virtual brand communities to fill the gap in the existing literature.Although existing research has extensively explored various factors that influence consumer engagement motivation, such as social suppor t(Liu, Xiao, Fang, Zhang, & Lin, 2020;Shirazi, Wu, Hajli, Zadeh, & Lin, 2021;Tajvidi, Wang, Hajli, & Love, 2021), website characteristics