Animation online community has been found to provide an ideal platform for anime fans for different types of interactions (e.g., interaction for information and interaction for social purpose). Effective online interactions between community members can promote purchase on anime products and services. Accumulative evidence from the marketing studies suggest that bonds formed with in community members may mediate the association between interactions and the willingness to purchase. Among most anime fans, who are at their emerging adulthood, social identity is a highly relevant bond because it not only reflects the cognitive and emotional evaluations to a certain community but also distinguishes from who belongs to the community and who does not. However, no study has been done to explicitly examine the potential explanatory mechanism between different types of online interactions, social identity and the willingness to pay for products and services on the animation community.
To test our hypothesis, 369 anime fans were recruited from an online animation community (49.46 % are girls; Mean age: 20 years old). Nearly one out of four respondents were at the age between 18-22 years, indicating “post-95s” were the main target consumers for anime products and services. The mediation analysis was conducted using SPSS. The result indicated that 1) both information interactions and social interactions were positively associated with the willingness to pay; 2) Social identity was positively associated with the willingness to pay; 3) social identity could only partially explain why social interactions enhanced willingness to pay，inside of information interactions.
Discussion focuses on the explanation and implications of these findings. For instance, information interactions with the community helps to gather, select and converge the most relevant information for the members, which may intensify the shared values and maintain active exchanges among the members. In addition, social interactions may help to build trust and cultivate intimacy within the community, which may contribute to the congruency of preference and purchase willingness. Moreover, the influence of interactions on purchasing behavior tendency works through increasing emotional bonding within the community.