Exploring success factors of video game communities in hierarchical linear modeling: The perspectives of members and leaders

Video games are enjoying fast-growing popularity, becoming a major component of young people’s social lives and leisure activities. Many players share information and conduct social interactions in virtual communities (VC). The current study sought to examine the relationships between members and leaders in such video game communities using a number of variables to describe the member (i.e., knowledge sharing, usefulness, enjoyability, off-site interaction, satisfaction, loyalty, and intention to use) and the leader (i.e., leader involvement). Based on a sample of 2227 members and 41 leaders in 30 video game communities, the research demonstrated the use of a two-level hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to examine the relationships of VC leaders and members, appropriately adjusted for a nested structure. The results indicated that leaders who engage in higher levels of involvement in VC are more likely to have members who agree with and respond to the community. Furthermore, member- and leader-level factors were significantly associated with member satisfaction: knowledge sharing, usefulness, and enjoyability explained within-VC variance while leader involvement explained between-VC variance. Finally, member satisfaction demonstrated positive effects on both member loyalty and intention to use. The study further discussed the implications of these findings, offering direction for future research.