Background: Despite the benefits provided by online communities and online retailing,administrators and managers are faced with several challenges to successfully manage theseplatforms. Helping behaviours may assist to overcome these challenges; however, knowledgeabout this construct in different online environments is limited.Objectives: To investigate the influence of affective and normative commitment on helpingbehaviour within non-commercial and commercial online environments.Method: Data were collected through online questionnaires. The sample included residentialonline community members who actively participated in the community during the last12 months (non-commercial sample) or had made an online purchase during the last 12 months(commercial sample). Non-probability sampling was used and the data analysis includeddescriptive statistics using SPSS and structural equation modelling using Mplus software.Results: In both online environments, affective commitment positively influenced thehelping behaviours of online community members and online customers; however, therelationship between normative commitment and helping behaviour was only significantfor the non-commercial online environment. Informational support, satisfaction andsubjective norm were confirmed as antecedents of affective and normative commitment forboth online environments.Conclusion: Affectively committed online community members and online retail customersare likely to perform helping behaviours and will become affectively and normativelycommitted when the community and online retailer provide satisfactory service to themembers and customers. Online community members who are normatively committed willhelp fellow members to use the service of the online community; and should onlinecommunity members and online customers experience subjective norm, they will becomenormatively committed.
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