Organizational interest in user-generated content (UGC) websites is growing, as organizations face highly competitive markets, uncertain economic environments, and a growing user base accustomed to active engagement rather than passive acceptance of products and services. Organizations are now exploring ways to provide a platform (website) through which users generate and contribute content, resulting in a co-created experience between users and organizations. However, organizations interested in leveraging UGC websites are facing a new challenge – getting users to actively engage through content contribution, retrieval, and exploration. Thus, the research questions guiding this dissertation are: what factors influence an individual's user experience in UGC websites and to what extent does a positive user experience impact individual engagement behavior? This manuscript develops a theory of co-created value to examine how social interactions, operationalized as perceived dialogue, transparency, social accessibility, and risk, and technical features, operationalized as the perceived granularity, extensibility, integration, and evolvability, of a UGC website influence an individual's user experience and subsequent engagement behaviors. Results suggest initial support for a socio-technical perspective of user engagement. The social interactions, critical mass and transparency, had a direct impact on a user's engagement within a UGC website, while critical mass also had a direct impact on a user's experience. The technical features, granularity and evolvability, had direct impacts on a user's experience within a UGC website. Surprisingly, extensibility had a negative impact on a user's experience. Lastly, a positive user experience positively influenced a user's engagement behavior. Based on the results of this study, implications for research and practice are discussed and future directions for researchers are outlined. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2010. / Date of Defense: April 30, 2010. / Socio-technical System, Co-created Value, User-generated Content Websites / Includes bibliographical references. / Molly Wasko, Professor Directing Dissertation; Gerald Ferris, University Representative; Deborah Armstrong, Committee Member; David Paradice, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_168914 |
| Contributors | Di Gangi, Paul Michael (authoraut), Wasko, Molly (professor directing dissertation), Ferris, Gerald (university representative), Armstrong, Deborah (committee member), Paradice, David (committee member), Department of Management (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
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