How do short video community governance mechanisms affect user value co-creation behaviour? The mediating role of sense of virtual community

Purpose This study aims to investigate the influence of short video community governance mechanisms on community members’ interaction and content creation behaviour, as well as the mediating role of sense of virtual community. Design/methodology/approach Analysis of questionnaire data from 313 participants was conducted using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings The results indicate that community building significantly enhances community influence but has no effect on immersion, aligning with the entertainment-centric nature of short video platforms. Community regulation showed no significant impact on either community influence or immersion, which may be attributed to the perceived constraints that discourage user participation. In contrast, information protection mechanisms positively affected both community influence and immersion. The sense of virtual community, comprising community influence and immersion, was found to significantly promote member interaction and content creation, consistent with prior research. Mediation analysis further revealed that community influence partially mediated the indirect effect of governance mechanisms on co-creation behaviours, whereas immersion did not serve as a mediator. These findings suggest that optimizing short video community governance should prioritize enhancing users’ sense of community influence to foster value co-creation. Originality/value The originality of this research lies in our attempt to integrate multi-dimensional short video community governance mechanisms and to explore how content creation and interaction behaviours are differentially mediated by influence (cognitive) vs. immersion (emotional) dimensions of sense of virtual community. This research also expands the application scenarios of virtual community perception theory and provides novel insights for platform design.