A hermeneutic phenomenological study of online community participation

In this paper, the application of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs), as an innovative approach in modeling consumer motivations for online community participation has been discussed. Although motivations have been widely studied over the past few years, no one has focused on the causal relations between them. This study gives a comprehensive understanding of causal relations - to determine whether changes in one variable result in changes in another - and their strengths as well as strongest paths toward online community participation which helps decision-makers reach the desirable level of user's participation in online communities.