Predicting good deeds in virtual communities of consumption: The cross-level interactions of individual differences and member citizenship behaviors

Purpose - Motivated by situational strength theory and multi-level theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose a cross-level model to examines whether virtual community citizenship behaviors (VCCBs) are affected by consumers' individual differences on reciprocity, other consumers' collective citizenship behaviors at community-level (members citizenship behaviors, MCBs), and their interaction effects. Design/methodology/approach - The research model is tested with a sample of 340 consumers collected from the 34 virtual communities of consumptions (VCCs). Because consumers are embedded in communities, the authors employ the hierarchical linear modeling for data analyses. Findings - The findings reveal positive effects of individual's prosocial values and community-level MCBs, and a negative effect of exchange ideology, on VCCBs. There is a significant cross-level moderation effect of MCBs such that MCBs reduce the negative influence of exchange ideology on VCCBs. Research limitations/implications - This research suggests that participation in VCCs could be simultaneously driven by the dispositions to help and to get fair reciprocity, while such effects are constrained by others' citizenship behaviors within the VCC. Future research should identify other contextual factors that could confine or amplify the personality-behavior links in the context of VCCs. Practical implications - Managers who intend to build a VCC of high co-creation should establish mechanisms that could facilitate norm of VCCBs. Also, it is crucial to take into account the participants' dispositions on reciprocity in recruiting community members and developing member portfolio. Originality/value - This is one of the first studies to offer insights regarding the role of community-level citizenship behavior as a strong situation to mitigating the influences of individuals' reciprocity-based dispositions.