Gifts and Gifting in Online Communities

Abstract

Purpose – We study weight loss communities to contribute to the understanding of how gifting, sharing, and the relationship between them allow individuals to pursue status transitions for a social identity.

Methodology – We employed archival netnography to capture emic experiences for a stigmatized circumstance in American society. We analyze data from four communities to obtain a broad range of consumer experiences within fee versus free communities.

Findings – We explain how individuals differentially employ sharing and gifting to create and sustain communities in support of status transitions within a social identity. Further, we describe roles of gifting, sharing, and prosumption, and their contributions to the transformative process of weight loss.

Research limitations/implications – The data comes from communities that may be viewed as stigmatized within the United States, one cultural milieu. Future research should examine these concepts across additional contexts and cultures.

Practical implications – Our analysis reveals the basis for virtual community development in support of status transitions. These results underscore the necessity to examine how consumers co-opt market resources to enact private, albeit life altering, goals.

Originality/value of paper – Most extant literature focuses either on gifting or sharing with little attention to how consumers employ community and membership to achieve personal goals. Our research articulates how individuals employ market resources to enact customized rituals and achieve individual goals within communities.

Citation

Williams Bradford, T., Grier, S.A. and Rosa Henderson, G. (2012), "Gifts and Gifting in Online Communities", Belk, R.W., Askegaard, S. and Scott, L. (Ed.) Research in Consumer Behavior (Research in Consumer Behavior, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 29-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0885-2111(2012)0000014006