Status versus Reputation as Motivation in Online Communities
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Date
2023-01-03
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280
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Abstract
The continued active participation of contributors is crucial for online knowledge exchange communities. In many communities, virtual credit scores measure contributions and play a pivotal role in motivating active participation over time. We use status theory to characterize virtual credit as a double-edged sword to participation dynamics. We hypothesize that virtual scores reflect status rather than reputation and produce a non-linear effect by motivating contributions when participants are of low status but demotivating participants once they achieve high status. We test our theorizing on a dataset of a large Q&A community. Consistent with our hypotheses, we find robust evidence that status-seeking is a positive source of motivation but self-depletes, meaning that cumulating status in the community reduces the motivational drive of status-seeking. This study contributes to the literature on the motivations to participate in voluntary online knowledge exchange communities by offering an explanation of the dynamics of continued active participation.
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Collaboration in Online Communities: Information Processing and Decision Making, continued participation, crowdsourced knowledge, motivation, reputation., status
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10
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Proceedings of the 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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