Magister Commercii - MCom / The humble Pong arcade game at the corner store ignited a fundamental culture shift in the 1970s and it is increasingly gaining momentum. A generation of gamers is already permeating organisations. The socio-cultural phenomenon of digital gaming has become pervasive. The intersection point of the three trends, Ubiquitous Computing, Ubiquitous Gaming and Social Networking, is the focus point of this study. It is at this intersection point that both social online gaming and cutting-edge leadership competencies co-exist and have the potential to flourish when implemented with caution and circumspection. Leadership is frequently touted as an almost mystical holy grail in modern business. Leadership :pevelopment is therefore often recognised as a critical pivot for business success. If business leaders can successfully utilise game-based learning to maximise their return on investment in Leadership Development initiatives, this may not only increase business metrics, but also enable business leaders to leave a lasting legacy by sculpting new generations of leaders who are ready and able to face the future. Social Online Simulation Gaming (SOSG) as a learning design and learning technology can prove particularly valuable as a leadership and skills development tool within the "digimodem" world. Current literature, however, does not provide a clearly focused framework for the implementation of ICT supported game-based Leadership Development technologies within the information economy. Current literature fails to integrate and take into account aspects critical to the successful utilisation of SOSG, such as the principles of "Flow Design", the often "Puppet Master" role and the interrelatedness, even interdependence, of the required utilisation competencies There is currently not a clear and specific framework for evaluating the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) competencies, knowledge, skills and attitudes required to successfully use Socia1 ·bnline Simulation Games software within the context of Organisational Leaden;hip Development. This study aimed to create and refine a framework for evaluating the ICT competencies required to successfully implement SOSG as Leadership Development tool.

本研究之目的在於探討線上社群協作與其前置因素之關係，並且檢驗社群投入度之中介效果。首先，本研究應用角色內與角色外行為分類，提出角色內與角色外線上社群協作之類型。其次，依據社會認知理論與社會交換理論，本研究提出線上社群協作之前置因素，包括對個人之結果預期、對社群之結果預期、知覺社群信任、知覺社群規範、知覺社群支持與知覺社群認同。最後，本研究基於投入度觀點，檢驗社群投入度對於線上社群協作及其前置因素之中介效果。 本研究之研究情境為玩家公會社群，本研究自一知名大型多人線上遊戲中收集340份有效問卷進行資料分析與假設檢驗，研究結果顯示：(1) 除社群禮貌外，社群投入度對於社群合作行為、助人行為與運動家精神皆有正向影響；(2) 對個人之結果預期與線上社群協作行為之關係，會受到社群投入度所中介；(3) 對社群之結果預期與線上社群協作行為之關係，會受到社群投入度所中介；(4) 知覺社群信任與線上社群協作行為之關係，會受到社群投入度所中介；(5) 知覺社群規範與線上社群協作行為之關係，會受到社群投入度所中介，但社群規範對於運動家精神亦有直接負向效果；(6) 知覺社群認同與線上社群協作行為之關係，會受到社群投入度所中介，但社群認同亦會直接正向影響社群合作與助人行為；(7) 然而，知覺社群支持與線上社群協作行為之關係，並不會受到社群投入度所中介。針對上述之研究結果，本研究進一步闡述其學術研究意涵、實務管理意涵，以及研究限制與未來研究方向。 / The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between online community collaboration and its antecedents by examining the mediating effect of community engagement. First, this study proposes a classification of online community collaboration by following the typology of in-role and extra-role behaviors. Accordingly, this study will further examine some of online community collaboration behaviors, including community cooperation, helping behavior, community courtesy, and sportsmanship. Second, drawing upon social cognitive theory and social exchange theory, this study identifies several antecedents of online community collaboration, including person-relevant outcome expectancy, community-relevant outcome expectancy, perceived community trust, perceived community norms, perceived community support, and perceived community identification. Finally, from the perspective of engagement, this study will examine the mediating effect of community engagement on the proposed model. The research setting of this study is online gaming communities. After collecting 340 valid responses from a famous Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG), our results show that (1) community engagement affects community cooperation, helping behavior and sportsmanship positively, but does not have a significant effect on community courtesy; (2) the relationships between person-relevant outcome expectancy and three online community collaboration behaviors are mediated by community engagement; (3) the relationships between community-relevant outcome expectancy and three online community collaboration behaviors are mediated by community engagement; (4) the relationships between perceived community trust and three online community collaboration behaviors are mediated by community engagement; (5) the relationships between perceived community norms and three online community collaboration behaviors are mediated by community engagement, but perceived community norms also has a direct and negative impact on sportsmanship; (6) the relationships between perceived community identification and three online community collaboration behaviors are mediated by community engagement, but perceived community identification also has direct and positive impacts on community cooperation and helping behavior; (7) the relationships between perceived community support and online community collaboration behaviors are not mediated by community engagement. According to these findings, this study concludes with research implications, managerial implications, research limitations and future research directions.