Virtual communities in marketing processes: A marketing framework

The chapter provides a marketing framework to analyse the uses of virtual communities on marketing processes. The framework involves: actors (companies and companies), goals, marketing strategies, and influence process. Each of these elements is described in detail. Moreover, in the chapter the framework is applied to EBay in order to understand how the functionalities provided by this virtual community allow companies and consumers to achieve their marketing goals. © 2013, IGI Global.