Community-level engagement configurations in virtual travel communities: a cross-national comparison

This study examines community-level engagement configurations, defined as combinations of community structure, visible production and response, communicative composition and participation asymmetry, and compares them across Slovak and Czech virtual travel communities (VTCs). Twelve months of behavioural trace data from 75 public Facebook Groups were analysed using descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, correlations, regressions and exploratory mediation; results are interpreted as associations, not causal effects. Czech communities showed higher and more sustained posting, more information provision and lower participation asymmetry, whereas Slovak communities showed more information seeking and a larger membership – production imbalance. Information seeking was positively associated with commenting in both samples, while other relationships varied by national context. The study establishes community as an analytical unit and supports context-sensitive interpretations of engagement on shared platforms.