Value cocreation in online music communities: Empathy and trust as mediators

In recent years the value cocreation-oriented online music community has grown at an astonishing rate. To clarify the relationship between value cocreation and users’ continuance intention in an online music community, we added aesthetic value to value cocreation based on service-dominant logic, and explored the chain mediating role of empathy and trust in this model. Using convenience sampling we collected 338 valid questionnaires from people who had used NetEase Cloud online music community within the past 6 months. Structural equation modeling results showed that aesthetic value had no effect on empathy and trust, but the relationships between the other variables in the model showed positive correlations, and empathy and trust had independent and chain mediating roles in this connection. Our findings provide a theoretical basis for the sustainable development of online music communities.