Improving customer loyalty by knowledge-sharing-based virtual communities

Recently the research of knowledge management has attracted great concern among the academia and the business circles, of which knowledge sharing presents as a problem. And virtual communities are considered to be an effective method to implement knowledge sharing, especially recessive knowledge sharing, for the establishment of virtual communities shortens the distance between enterprises and customers and also accumulates a group of faithful customers. Many enterprises have come to realize the significance and effects knowledge-sharing-based virtual communities can bring to develop customer loyalty. Therefore, it is important to explore the measures for enterprises to establish effective virtual communities. This paper develops a model of knowledge sharing mechanism in virtual communities. It also discusses the function of knowledge-sharing-based virtual communities in improving customer loyalty for enterprises and offers relevant solutions for establishing virtual communities.