Can members' WeChat engagement affect relational outcomes in community-supported agriculture? Empirical evidence from China

摘要

Members' offline engagement is commonly believed to affect the producer-member relationship in community-supported agriculture, however, little research focuses on engagement in the online context. Using qualitative data of 24 members and quantitative data of 279 members from China, this study uses a sequential exploratory mixed-method design to explore the impact of members' WeChat engagement on relational outcomes. The findings indicate that WeChat engagement positively affects four relational outcomes: Service satisfaction, word of mouth, social bonds, and commitment. In addition, those four relational outcomes are not equally influenced by WeChat engagement. The greatest impact is on commitment, while the lowest is on service satisfaction. Furthermore, multigroup analysis results suggest that gender moderates the relationship between WeChat engagement and commitment.