Prior research suggests that members¡¯ ongoing participation in a community is influenced by their psychological identification with it, the community¡¯s internal structural dynamics, and characteristics of the communication exchanged within the community. However, most of this research has focused on characteristics of the individual members and the community under consideration, taking the existence of the community as a given and giving little attention to the larger context in which the community resides.
This dissertation extends prior research by proposing an ecological perspective when studying community success, taking into account the ecological and structural context of individuals¡¯ interaction with an online community. Two empirical studies were conducted to test the impact of context on the ongoing interactions between individuals and communities. The first study develops a theory of online community ecology, focusing on the impact of competition created by other communities in the same niche. Analysis of a longitudinal sample of 241 Usenet newsgroups over 64 months implies that both internal characteristics and external context affect communities¡¯ capability to retain members. Specifically, competition - the extent to which a community shares content with other communities and the extent to which the community¡¯s members also participate in other communities - represents an external threat that leads to a lower likelihood of members to return in the following time period.
The second study builds on the first to explore the impact of contextual factors on individual members¡¯ ongoing participation decisions in online communities. Applying social exchange theory, I propose to treat individuals¡¯ interaction with online communities as a series of social exchanges. In addition to the ecological context, individuals¡¯ prior exchanges with an online community are also expected to shape the ways they make decisions about ongoing interaction. A research model based on social exchange theory is proposed and tested, with participation data of 43,758 individuals in seven Usenet newsgroups. The results suggest that an individual¡¯s level of current participation, the prior exchange history with the online community, and the availability of other alternative communities all play a role in the individual¡¯s continuance decision.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-08302007-123310 |
| Date | 07 September 2007 |
| Creators | Wang, Xiaoqing |
| Contributors | Richard L. Moreland, Brian S. Butler, Robert Kraut, Laurie J. Kirsch, Dennis Galletta |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-08302007-123310/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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