User Satisfaction with Virtual Social Community: The Case of Bulletin Board Systems

Building upon expectation confirmation theory and elaboration likelihood model, this study proposed and empirically tested a research model of user satisfaction with virtual social community. An online questionnaire was posted in the Bulletin Board Systems of a local university in Mainland China. A total of 240 online questionnaires were collected, and the data was analyzed using partial least squares. The research model provided over 70 percent of variance explained in user satisfaction with virtual social community. Relevance and comprehensiveness of messages, and disconfirmations of relevance and accuracy of messages are found statistically significant. The dimensions of perceived source credibility (including source expertise and source trustworthiness) are not found significant, but their disconfirmations are found statistically significant. Implications of this study are noteworthy for both researchers and practitioners.