The financial success of online communities based on multiplayer game environments has been a bright spot among the many failures in electronic commerce initiatives. While this form of business has existed for less than a decade, it is growing rapidly and has become a mainstream form of entertainment in some areas of the world, such as Korea. Game environments are becoming more immersive and co...

While the question how community design influences user behaviors in online communities has recently attracted considerable research, few studies empirically evaluate the influencing factors of specific user behaviors. Building on Ren et al.’s (2007) conceptual framework of identity-based vs. bond-based attachment in online communities, this study evaluates the influence of numerous antecedents...

The Internet was introduced in Saudi Arabia1 in late January 1999 after a long period of discussion and consultation within the Saudi authorities. These resulted in a tailored version being made available to the Saudi public. To enable this, a huge filter system was set up in Riyadh in conjunction with an American company. The reason for having such a filter system was that the Saudi authoritie...

This research aims to provide an understanding of knowledge sharing behavior through the adaptation of two major theories imported from Social Psychology: the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TpB). Exploring knowledge sharing from a social psychological perspective provides an understanding of the process an individual goes through to make the decision to shar...

In this paper we examine the possibility of evaluating the value of an online community in a company by focusing on the practices around the online community, which we call active lurking. We divided the practices into two types: independent practices that are completed within only an informal context, and connecting practices that have relationships with the formal organizational structure. We...

Understanding what motivates participation in online innovation communities is now possible given the recent explosion of opportunities for joining such communities. This article reports on the results of a survey of participants in a specific online innovation community to characterise and find correlations between motivation and participation styles. An analysis of the survey results show: th...

In the current Web 2.0 environment there is high expectation that libraries and IT service providers will embrace online technologies to connect with and engage their users. Some libraries, for example, have reported on their implementation of technologies to develop online communities; however there is a much greater potential to utilise this approach than is generally appreciated within both ...

Online communities are increasingly becoming a venue for socializing, engaging in politics, and conducting business. Ironically, the same enabling social–media technology is encroaching into everyday life and reconfiguring relations of participation. Yet, while participation in online communities has been widely studied empirically, theoretical aspects of this social phenomenon need further inv...

Although continuous knowledge sharing behaviour is acknowledged as important by scholars, the understanding of what influence this continuous behaviour remains limited. Thus, this paper fills the gap by examining the mediating role of identification trust and affective commitment on members’ continuous knowledge sharing intention within business online communities. 220 experienced online commun...

Online social networking is increasingly popular and is a feature of many websites. Providing multiple types of relationship, such as friend, fan or colleague, can enhance the significance of the networks. We present an empirical study of an online political forum where users engage in content creation, voting, and discussion. The users also make explicit connections via three relationship type...