TY - JOUR AB - Purpose Understanding how to develop users’ word of mouth to promote a virtual community (VC) is an important issue in VC management. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that lead to VC participation and promotion from a social influence perspective.Design/methodology/approach This research recruited 368 VC (i.e., Fashion Guide) members in Taiwan and used structural equation model to test research hypotheses.Findings The results showed that both shared vision and language positively influenced norm of reciprocity and social identity, respectively. Norm of reciprocity and social identity influenced VC participation intentions, and subsequently resulted in VC promotion intentions.Originality/value Prior studies neglect investigating the relationships between the three social influence processes (internalization, compliance and identification). This study contributes to the literature by proposing that internalization affects VC participation and promotion via compliance and identification. VL - 118 IS - 6 SN - 0263-5577 DO - 10.1108/IMDS-10-2017-0477 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-10-2017-0477 AU - Hsu Li-Chun AU - Wang Kai-Yu AU - Chih Wen-Hai PY - 2018 Y1 - 2018/01/01 TI - Investigating virtual community participation and promotion from a social influence perspective T2 - Industrial Management & Data Systems PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 1229 EP - 1250 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -