Examining knowledge contribution in firm- versus consumer-hosted virtual brand community

Virtual brand communities (VBCs), whether hosted by firms or consumers, rely largely on consumers’ knowledge contribution to survive and thrive. Despite the importance of knowledge contribution, limited is known about its antecedents and especially how it varies across VBCs of two hosting types, i.e. firm- vs. consumer-hosted VBCs. Drawing from the reciprocity theory, this study develops and tests a model to investigate how VBC user-community...