Exploring the Sense of Belonging, Participation and Trust in Online Communities: A comparison between Spain and United States

Online Communities ( OC) have become an important source of information for consumers. With their success, many companies have interest in introducing forms of online communities in their marketing strategy in order to improve their brand awareness. The influence and the use of these online communities can vary depending on different aspects ( e. g. type of person, trust, type of community, etc.), standing out the culture and the nationality of the users. Since there are many variables affecting this issue, the main objective of this study is comparing the way different important variables in the use of online communities ( trust, sense of belonging, participation, and influence in the purchase) react depending on the country the user is from, focusing on Spain and United States. Data was collected from 413 users of online communities from both countries who are members of OCs, using a structured questionnaire. The findings suggest that consumers from both countries are more similar than expected, showing high levels in all of the variables studied, but there are differences considering trust and sense of belonging.