Explicating the Purchase Intention : A netnographic study on the impacts of online consumption community members’ purchase intention

Abstract: Empowered by the internet and eWOM, online consumption community members now have a greater impact while considering customers’ purchase intentions. This qualitative study intends to examine the factors that impact these community members’ purchase intentions, by addressing the research question: How do internal behavioral and value creation factors impact customers’ purchase intentions in an online consumption community? Moreover, this study proposes a research model of purchase intention in an online consumption community inspired by the theory of planned behavior. As this study considers investigating human behaviors in the online sphere, a netnographic research design is applied. Utilizing the CAQDAS software NVivo 14, the study highlights the nine most engaging factors that impact the community members’ purchase intentions differently. Based on the findings, this study finally offers a research model that can be used in a similar research context.