Improving passive members sustained participation behavior in online political communities: A empirical study from China and South Korea

Passive members are a major part of online political communities, but there is a lack of quantitative research exploring this topic. Furthermore, little is known about how a sense of socialization drives their participation in online political communities. Therefore, this paper tried to depict the drivers of the participation of passive members in online political communities. 591 data were collected through an online survey platform in China and Korea. Then, Mplus8.0 was used to test the related hypotheses, and a multigroup analysis approach has been implemented to quantify the moderating effect of political environment. Results suggest that collective psychological ownership has positively affect sense of community, which then positively affects passive members' sustained participation behavior in the online policy community. By the way, prior behavior observation and perceived political efficacy have a positive effect on socialization. Results also suggest that socialization positively affect sense of community. The findings not only enriched the literature of online political community participation, but also provided important enlightenment for the operation and management of online political community.