Online Communities and Firm Advantages

Online communities are an increasingly relevant yet relatively underexamined stakeholder group for firms. I argue that firms may garner distinct competitive advantages from engaging with online communities. Drawing on social capital theory and stakeholder theory, I examine the benefits, tactics, and firm attributes that underlie a positive relationship between firm engagement in an online community and firm performance. In so doing, I develop a theory pertaining to online community advantage, which both accounts for the information, influence, and solidarity benefits that flow to firms from firm engagement in an online community and highlights the firm tactics and attributes associated with the generation of such benefits.