Motivation, Knowledge Transfer, and Organizational Forms
Organization Science
Using social psychology to motivate contributions to online communities
CSCW '04 Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work
Motivating Content Contributions to Online Communities: Toward a More Comprehensive Theory
HICSS '05 Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - Volume 07
Non-public and public online community participation: Needs, attitudes and behavior
Electronic Commerce Research
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
An Exploratory Examination of Knowledge Sharing Behaviors: Voluntary vs. Solicited
HICSS '08 Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
A life-cycle perspective on online community success
ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR)
The Influence of On-Line Brand Community Characteristics on Community Commitment and Brand Loyalty
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
Understanding participant loyalty intentions in virtual communities
WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
The impact of social design on user contributions to online communities
The impact of social design on user contributions to online communities
Customer Information Sharing with E-Vendors: The Roles of Incentives and Trust
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
Co-Creation: Toward a Taxonomy and an Integrated Research Perspective
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
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Online communities may increase customer brand loyalty, deliver customer feedback, and lead to cost savings. Yet they also suffer from weak contributions that limit their survival chances. This study explores whether two types of explicit incentives-monetary and normative pleas-encourage members of an online community to contribute actively. Community managers often administer explicit incentives to increase members' participation, but economic and psychological theories indicate that their effects depend on members' previous levels of voluntary contributions. An experimental study among members of a large, public question-and-answer community confirms varying effects: Online community managers can use monetary incentives to increase active and passive community members' participation in the short term, but these rewards' hidden costs likely emerge in the long run because participation motivation among formerly active members decreases after the incentives expire. Explicit normative pleas should be administered only to increase active members' short-term intentions to post messages. These results can help community managers decide whether to use explicit incentives to increase member participation and which kinds of explicit incentives to offer to various community members.