Actual Relationship v. Perceived Relationship, Which is Better to Explain its Mediating Role between the Sense of Community and its Antecedents in an Online Brand Community

The relationship has a critical role to play in user behavior within various social media platforms including online communities. The current study focuses on the measurement of this construct by comparing two methods: the perceived strength of the relationship using a self-administered survey and the closeness centrality of the relationship using social network analysis (SNA). The study designs a structural equation model with antecedents and consequences of the relationship. It compares two separate models with two types of relationships in terms of their predictive powers. The SNA model with the closeness centrality appears to have a superior fit over the other. With the closeness centrality measure, further studies can take benefits to predict various performances of social media contexts. Additionally, antecedents of this alternative measure should be examined and investigated to enhance its validity and reliability.