The web has become an irreplaceable source for knowledge creation and consumption and online communities have turned out to be the new form of socialization platforms for fulfilling certain needs such as providing or acquiring information, sharing experiences, playing games, etc. The aim of this paper is to explore the main characteristics of an online community that can deliver value to its consumers and instigate engagement. For this purpose, Airliners.net, an online community on aviation with high traffic and committed participants who are willing to pay membership fees to become active participants, is explored through netnography (Kozinets 2010). Netnography along with online and offline in-depth interviews revealed three specific online community characteristics that create value for the members of Airliners.net: goal driven and quality content (intellectual value), interactive environment for building relationships (social value), and self-governed community culture consistent with its principles (cultural value). Along with the results of netnography, the study discusses co-creation (Kozinets, Hemetsberger, and Schau 2008; Toffler 1980), interactivity and ritual chains (Collins 2004, Gordon 2010), and community culture (Cova 1997; Muniz and O'Guinn 2001; Muniz and Schau 2005) literature to show how these concepts converge to create value and therefore engagement, loyalty, and sustainability for online community members. These findings have theoretical implications for social media and online interaction related literature as well as critical business implications for sponsors or creators of online communities to differentiate themselves within the inflating number of online platforms. (C) 2012 Direct Marketing Educational Foundation, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
