A Study on the Influence of Flow on Online Community Satisfaction: Focusing on the Mediating Role of Social Capital

Abstract

An online community serves as a communication hub among members who desire to share their opinions and emotions. Thus, it is often utilized as a corporate or brand marketing tool. While focusing on commercial online communities from the marketing perspective, however, researchers have barely discussed non-commercial online communities despite its popularity. This study examined the influence of flow on satisfaction in the context of the non-commercial online community as well as the role of social capital as a significant mediator between flow and satisfaction. The result also included the differences between employed mothers and non-employed mothers. This study has expanded the research scope of online communities and offered theoretical and practical implications based on the interdisciplinary discussion that involves one of the understudied populations, mothers.