The Impact of Community Commitment on Participation in online communities

• Published in: Information systems research 2011-12, Vol.22 (4), p.841
• Main Authors: Bateman, Patrick J, Gray, Peter H, Butler, Brian S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absenteeism; Analysis; Behavior; Citizen participation; Citizenship; Commitments; Community; Employees; Forecasts and trends; Impact analysis; Influence; Internet; Job performance; Online social networks; Social media; Social networks; Studies; Verbal communication; Virtual communities
• ISSN: 1047-7047; 1526-5536
• DOI: 10.1287/isre.1090.0265

Online discussion communities have become a widely used medium for interaction, enabling conversations across a broad range of topics and contexts. Their success, however, depends on participants' willingness to invest their time and attention in the absence of formal role and control structures. Some studies of online communities argue that individuals are driven by self-interest, while others emphasize more altruistic motivations. To get beyond these inconsistent explanations, the authors offer a model that brings dissimilar rationales into a single conceptual framework and shows the validity of each rationale in explaining different online behaviors. Drawing on typologies of organizational commitment, they argue that members may have psychological bonds to a particular online community based on need, affect, and/or obligation. They develop hypotheses that explain how each form of commitment to a community affects the likelihood that a member will engage in particular behaviors. Results indicate that each form of community commitment has a unique impact on each behavior.