Communications of the ACM
Machine learning in automated text categorization
ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR)
The most important issues in knowledge management
Communications of the ACM
The Cathedral and the Bazaar
Incentives for Sharing in Peer-to-Peer Networks
WELCOM '01 Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Electronic Commerce
Information Systems Research
When snipers become predators: can mechanism design save online auctions?
Communications of the ACM - Mobile computing opportunities and challenges
Assessing differential usage of usenet social accounting meta-data
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Collaborative Networks as Determinants of Knowledge Diffusion Patterns
Management Science
Evolution of R&D Capabilities: The Role of Knowledge Networks Within a Firm
Management Science
Open Source Technical Support: A Look at Peer Help-Giving
HICSS '06 Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - Volume 06
Managing Response Time in a Call-Routing Problem with Service Failure
Operations Research
Introduction to Information Retrieval
Introduction to Information Retrieval
The incentive structure in an online information market
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Questions in, knowledge in?: a study of naver's question answering community
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Call Center Outsourcing: Coordinating Staffing Level and Service Quality
Management Science
Relative Performance Compensation, Contests, and Dynamic Incentives
Management Science
Financial incentives and the "performance of crowds"
Proceedings of the ACM SIGKDD Workshop on Human Computation
Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Diffusion
Marketing Science
Commentary---Contagion in Prescribing Behavior Among Networks of Doctors
Marketing Science
Breaking the Myths of Rewards: An Exploratory Study of Attitudes about Knowledge Sharing
Information Resources Management Journal
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Online user forums for technical support are being widely adopted by IT firms to supplement traditional customer support channels. Customers benefit from having an additional means of product support, while firms benefit by lowering the costs of supporting a large customer base. Typically these forums are populated with content generated by users, consisting of questioners (solution seekers) and solvers (solution providers). While questioners can be expected to keep returning as long as they can find answers, firms must employ different means in order to recognize and encourage the contributions of solvers. We identify and compare the impact of two widely adopted recognition mechanisms on the philanthropic behavior of solvers. In the first mechanism, feedback-based recognition, solver contribution is evaluated by questioners. In the second mechanism, quantity-based recognition, all contributions are weighted equally regardless of questioner feedback. We draw on the pro-social behavior literature to identify four drivers of solver contribution: (1) peer recognition, (2) image motivation, (3) social comparison, and (4) social exposure. We show that the choice of recognition mechanism strongly influences a solver's problem-solving behavior, highlighting the importance of the firm's decision in this regard. We address issues of solvers self-selecting a type of recognition mechanism by using propensity score analysis in order to show that solver behavior is a result of forum conditioning. We also study the impact of the recognition mechanism on forum quality and the effectiveness of support to draw comparative analytics.