A netnographic research to understand group dynamics affecting purchasing behavior in digital tribe culture

Virtual communities that emerge in social networks are important customer masses that marketing should consider. The possible future will take shape around these groups. It is important to stay up to date understand these groups which are connected to each other with various values. The aim of this study is to investigate the marketing area in social media; to understand the consumer's tendency to buy in virtual communities, the tendency to buy directly from the producer, the trust relationships in virtual communities and to see the equivalent of group dynamics in virtual communities. In order to realize this aim, the research has benefited from the commitment-trust theory and the common identity-common bond theory. This research was carried out on a shopping community based on cooperation, independent of any brand, established on Facebook the most widely used social network in Turkey. Netnography method was used in the study. At the end of the research, specific to the sample; it was found that the virtual community created a culture of its own, the relationship of trust was strong, trust directly affected the commitment of the members, correct management of the community affected the group dynamics, the structure and dynamics of the group affected the intra-community behaviors, the leader was able to direct the purchase easily and trust-based collaborative groups have been found to replace traditional intermediaries in the digital world. In addition, as a result of the observations, two different types of groups were found in the virtual communities in terms of group dynamics. These are leading-oriented groups and theme-oriented groups. The results both support and expand previous researches. Keywords: Marketing, virtual communities, digital tribe, group dynamics, trust, commitment, leadership, netnography.