Sponsored Online Community Types and Participant’s Perceived Value

Abstract

The growth of social media has enabled firms to create virtual organizations (online communities) in which value can be co-created with members. Yet, current typologies of firm-sponsored online communities focus either on the firm or participants, and not the interaction between them. This paper provides a systematic review of the online community literature from 2000 to 2018 to develop an understanding of the types of firm-sponsored online communities and the co-creation of value within them. Four types of sponsored online communities are found. These can be differentiated based on the output for the sponsoring firm and the level of self-organization of the communities. This study contributes to the discussion of value co-creation by (i) shedding light on differences among firm-sponsored online community types based on the level and nature of interaction within an online community; and (ii) examining the perceived value co-created through community interactive experiences.