Just friends, good acquaintances or soul mates? An exploration of web site connectedness

Abstract

Purpose-This study aims to understand the meaning of web site connectedness from the consumer's point of view, and uncover the underlying meaning of emotional ties between visitors and web sites. Design/methodology/approach-The study, conducted a netnography which uses three qualitative research methods: online interviews; diary analysis; and observation of web site usage and behaviour. Seven respondents were obtained for the depth interviews, and 12 respondents participated in the diary study. The length of interviews was approximately 1.5 hours/respondent; whereas the three-consecutive days of diary entries consist of three-four pages per day/respondent. Observation was undertaken by the lead researcher as an active member of several user groups. Findings-The emic perspective illuminated here shows that web site connectedness consists of three major themes: relatability; dependency; and sense of community. The paper defines these constructs, and suggests that to transform the relationship from "just friends" to "soul mates" web site owners should focus on improving one or all of the connectedness components. Surprisingly, frequency of visit did not determine the depth of the relationship between web sites and their visitors, as is the common assumption in the literature. Originality/value-This research study illuminates a new way to understand the emotional connection between consumers and web sites, and uncovers the three most important factors that lead toward three varying levels of emotional connectedness (just friends, good acquaintances and soul mates). The paper also suggests ways in which emotional connectedness can be enhanced.

Trajectories in Holocaust tourism

“…Online content analysis of conversations (Venkatesh, Podoshen, Perri, & Urbaniak, 2014) in Jewish virtual communities was conducted in conjunction with the news analysis, which allowed the author to engage in a form of passive netnography (Maulana & Eckhardt, 2007), which is a naturalistic, unobtrusive method whereby online communities are examined. Netnographic analysis allows researchers to gain very valuable insight into the context of actual consumption conversations (Mkono, 2011).…”

Strengthening Consumers Loyalty to a Retail Web Site: An Attachment Theory Perspective

“…To be able to have a more complete picture of this phenomenon and enrich academic knowledge, some studies have been done qualitatively [16]. Firstly, this study uses qualitative methods such as online interviews and netnography method explore the conceptualization of the web site attachment.…”

“…Childer et al [15] found that online retail shopping behavior can fulfill people's hedonic and utilitarian needs. Maulana and Eckhardt [16] introduced the web site connectedness which reflects the intensity of emotional ties and relational proximity between a visitor and a web site, and suggested the different type of relationships between a web site and its visitors are analogous to the relationships between two individuals or consumer and a brand. Therefore, the retail web sites may also become the material objects which people attached as the common products and brands.…”

A Review of Cyber Ethnographic Research: A Research Technique to Analyze Virtual Consumer Communities

“…Likewise, some of the researchers used other data collection techniques in addition to observation. Maulana and Eckhardt (2007) combined three data gathering techniques in cyber ethnographic research --online interviews, diary analysis and observation of the web site usage, and behavior in order to examine the web site connectedness. They interviewed seven respondents in depth and analyzed the data gathered from 12 respondents in the diary study.…”