Online communities are increasingly important for both the businesses and the general public that uses them. However, current IS research on online communities has a limited view of these groups, treating them primarily as information repositories, where people participate by seeking or contributing knowledge. This paper argues that online communities are also social systems with which people form relationships and repeatedly interact over time. This paper proposes a relational model of online communities that emphasizes the social, bi-directional, and dynamic nature of the interactions in online communities and the way that these interactions build and maintain the relationship between individuals and the community. Hypotheses derived from the relational model are tested by examining the 22-month history of 28,869 newcomers who initially posted to 98 Usenet groups between May 15, 2003, and February 23, 2005. First, taking the newcomers ’ point of view, we examine how the community’s response to their posts influences their subsequent participation in the community. Then, taking the community’s point of view, we examine how the nature of individual members ’ participation in the community influences the community’s willingness to interact with them. Consistent with the relational model, the results show that the social nature of interactions, including the social status of the repliers and the use of welcoming, inclusive

This study investigates knowledge exchange in a Hybrid Virtual Communities (HVC) for patients with multiple sclerosis, that is a group of people with shared interests who meet face-to-face to exchange information or provide emotional support, but also coordinate or share information in a “virtual ” or online environment Using discourse analysis and semi-structured interviews, I examine a face-to-face Multiple Sclerosis aquatics group and their virtual interactions. The investigation entails analysis of six months of e-mail dialogues between members and nineteen semi-structured interviews. Using the theoretical foundation of social capital (Jacobs 1960), network capital (Wellman and Frank, 2001) and a social support framework created by Drentea and Moren-Cross (2005), communications are classified as community building, emotional support, and instrumental support. The present research helps to explain the process of building and maintaining social support and exchanging knowledge in a patient-centric HVC.

The focus of this study is to examine the motivations of online community members to share information and rumors. We investigated an online community of interest, the members of which voluntarily associate and communicate with people with similar interests. Community members, posters and lurkers alike, were surveyed on the influence of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, as well as normative influences, on their willingness to share information and rumors with others. The results indicated that posters and lurkers are differently motivated by intrinsic factors to share, and that extrinsic rewards like improved reputation and status-building within the community are motivating factors for rumor mongering. The results are discussed and future directions for this area of research are offered.

As knowledge gains a reputation for being a critical resource in the information-intensive economy, organizations have doubled their efforts in trying to extract value from knowledge management policies. One particular aspect of knowledge management, which has gone unnoticed in academic research, is the presence of conflicts in knowledge activities. By adopting a conflict perspective of knowledge activities, this study arrives at a two-dimensional framework that defines knowledge conflicts in terms of its type and nature. Central to this paper is the fundamental idea that conflicts form an integral part of knowledge management and depending on how they are managed; conflicts may be formidable partners or dangerous adversaries in the corporate quest for knowledge-derived competitiveness.

Capital–Evidence from the Field

This paper develops a theory of collaboration through superposition: the process of depositing separate layers on top of each other over time. The theory is developed in a study of development of community-based Free and Open Source Software (FLOSS), through a research arc of discovery (participant observation), replication (two archival case studies) and formalization (a model of developer choices). The theory explains two key findings: 1) the overwhelming majority of work is accomplished with only a single programmer working on a task and 2) when tasks appear too large for an individual they are more likely to be deferred until they are easier, rather than being undertaken through structured teamwork. It is theorized that this way of organizing is key to successful open collaboration where the IT artifact is the object of collaboration, because it allows the co-production of technically interdependent artifacts through motivationally interdependent work. The affordances of software as an object of collaboration are used as a framework to analyze efforts to learn from FLOSS in other domains of work and in the IS function of for-profit organizations.

Workgroups can struggle with remembering past projects and sharing this information with other groups in the organization. In a case study of the deployment of MediaWiki as a publishing tool for building organizational memory, group members ’ motivation to document past projects increased. A browsable collection of past projects allowed for discovery of past work, building the reputation of individuals and the workgroup, and development of transactive memory within the workgroup. The “anyone can edit” feature, frequently touted as the main benefit of wikis, had both benefits and drawbacks in this implementation. Group members did not feel comfortable making substantial edits to others ’ content but did occasionally use the wiki to coauthor content and also categorize and link to others ’ content and fix typos, particularly when asked to help.

This study investigates how social capital is built and maintained in a Hybrid Virtual Communities (HVC), that is, a group of people with shared interests who meet face-to-face to exchange information and knowledge or provide emotional support and also do so in a ―virtual ‖ or online environment. Past health-IS research has primarily focused on pure virtual environments; however, many communities entail face-to-face interactions as well. This research helps fill this void. Discourse analysis of virtual interactions, face-to-face (FTF) observations, and semi-structured interviews of a patient-oriented HVC were analyzed, providing rich descriptive data. Using the theoretical foundation of social capital, this article extends existing theory by combining Drentea and Moren-Cross‘s [2005] social support framework with Etzioni and Etzioni‘s [1999] aspects of community framework to better explain building and maintaining social capital in a HVC.

the perspective of transaction cost theory

Abstract—Despite the fact that Knowledge Sharing (KS) is very important, we found only little discussion about the reasons why people have the willingness to share knowledge at such platform even though there is no immediate benefit to the persons who contribute knowledge in it. The aim of this study is to develop an integrative understanding of the factors that support or inhibit individuals’ knowledge sharing intentions in virtual communities and to find whether habit would generate people’s willingness to be involved. We apply Social Capital Theory (SCT), and we also add two dimensions for discussion: member incentive and habitual domain (HD). This research assembles the questionnaire from individuals who have experienced knowledge sharing in virtual communities, and applies survey and Structural Equation Model (SEM) to analyze the results from the questionnaires. Finally, results confirm that individuals are willing to share knowledge in virtual communities: (1) if they consider reciprocity, centrality, and have longer tenure in their field, and enjoy helping. (2) if they have the habit of sharing knowledge. This study is useful for the developers of virtual communities to insight into knowledge sharing in cyberspace.