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Motivating Content Contributions to Online Communities: Toward a More Comprehensive Theory
Tedjamulia, S.J.J.; Dean, D.L.; Olsen, D.R.; Albrecht, C.C.
System Sciences, 2005. HICSS apos;05. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on
Volume , Issue , 03-06 Jan. 2005 Page(s): 193b - 193b
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/HICSS.2005.444
Summary
This paper extends previous research by proposing a model that can help explain ways to motivate member contributions to online communities (OCs). New features in the model will allow researchers to test the relative effects of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards as motivators in OCs. Some OCs have introduced extrinsic re-enforcements like gifts, social recognition, and feedback to entice their community members to contribute. However, some research in non-OC settings has suggested that extrinsic rewards can be detrimental to intrinsic motivation. The new model presents findings from organizational behavior and psychology literature that suggest extrinsic rewards can increase a person's intrinsic motivation under some conditions.
First Few Paragraphs
1. Introduction
The Internet has enabled its users to connect to an ever increasing amount of information and has allowed users to extend their professional and social networks through participation in online communities (OCs) [1, 2]. OCs are social networks of users who share similar interests and practices and who communicate regularly over a common communication medium, such as a news group or a discretionary database [3, 4]. Past research has shown that people contribute to communities largely based on intrinsic motivation [1, 5–8]. Once information is contributed, the community incorporates the information into its existing body of knowledge and uses it to create additional new information, exchange that information, and increase the value of the community’s information. Once contributed, information becomes the property of the community and is considered a public good, since the information is freely available for consumption without diminishing the information’s value and without requiring participants to contribute [6, 8–10]. Community members benefit from an OC because they can expand their social networks and draw from community information that is more extensive than their own knowledge.
Businesses also benefit from OCs in a number of ways. Businesses can conduct market research by mining community discussions on products and services, sell and advertise their products to their target markets, and leverage communities to help them build and support products [4, 11]. Some businesses run their own OCs, but in other cases, a third party creates and maintains the OC. OCs can be funded by a host organization, willing supporters, advertising, subscription fees, or a combination of the above.
Successful communities, which benefit both members and businesses, engage their members in knowledge sharing activities to stimulate dialogue, respond to other members’ inquiries, build strong ties with other members, and develop long-term relationships with the community. Becoming a successful community is not a simple endeavor, however. To be successful, OCs depend on member contributions and participation. Just building an OC or using technology innovation to attract members is not sufficient [12–14]; unless OC members are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated to help the community, they will find it in their self-interest to consume community information without contributing [10]. To make content contributions, members incur costs in terms of time, effort, opportunity costs, reputation risks, and money. Therefore, OCs often struggle, and in some cases even fail, due to an undersupply of contributions [1, 9]. Factors such as an undersupply of content, poor participation, unorganized contribution, transient membership, and weak ties can cause communities to lose their current membership, can discourage potential members from joining, and can cause OCs to lose their funding [7, 15].
In an attempt to help OC communities thrive, OC researchers have explored potential solutions intended to encourage members to participate and develop a long term relationship with a community. Some have proposed....
