Elements of the management of norms and their effects on the sense of virtual community
| Date | 29 April 2014 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-04-2013-0083 |
| Pages | 436-454 |
| Published date | 29 April 2014 |
| Author | Gregor Petrič,Andraž Petrovčič |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval |
Elements of the management of
norms and their effects on the
sense of virtual community
Gregor Petric
ˇand Andraz
ˇPetrovc
ˇic
ˇ
Department of Social Informatics, University of Ljubljana,
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how decisions of managers and administrators
of online communities on norms and rules affect the sense of virtual community (SOVC), which is an
important factor of the quality of online information.
Design/methodology/approach – The study followed a two-level research design based on 970
online community members, nested within 36 online communities. Data collection consisted of
two stages: first a web survey of a sample of online community members was conducted, followed by a
web survey of administrators of the same online communities. A two-level hierarchical regression
analysis was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings – The empirical results suggest that prominence of rules under the condition of members’
participation in their creation, presence of reputation mechanisms, and content moderation contribute
significantly to the SOVC , while presence of lighter sanctions and interactive moderation do not.
Research limitations/implications – Since this study is based on web forums, the validity
of the proposed hypotheses for other types of online communities cannot be firmly established.
Additional elements of online community management could be considered for a stronger system-level
explanation of the SOVC.
Practical implications – The study demonstrates that online community administrators need to be
considerate in creating and enforcing norms, as their decisions have an impact on the SOVC and
consequently on the quality of online infor mation.
Originality/value – The literature considers many factors of the SOVC but none of the previous
studies have considered how community management is associated with this phenomenon.
Keywords Management, Online community, Norms, Sense of virtual community
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Online communities[1] have become one of the most important venues in contem porary
society, where both individuals and organisations find and create resources for their
successful existence. Such observation is supported by the growing p opularity of
various platforms for online communities from discussion boards and blogs to social
networking sites as well as by rich scientific evidence of the important role of online
communities in knowledge production, social capital, social suppor t, identity,
shopping, health, etc. While we are fascinated by the power of online communities,
it is often overlooked that only a small proportion of online communities are actually
successful (Ma and Agarwal, 2007), while the majority of them are abandoned by
the users and rest out of sight in the web’s graveyard. Different criteria exist for
identifying a successful online community. On the one hand success can be measured
by behavioural benchmarks such as frequency of visits, numb er of active users and
continuity of membership (Kraut and Resnick, 2011; Preece, 2001). On the other hand it
can be represented by other, less tangible, but equally important criteria, which pertain
to the psychological dimension of members’ sense of belonging and identification with
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
Received 19 April 2013
Second revision approved
5 October 2013
Online Information Review
Vol. 38 No. 3, 2014
pp. 436-454
rEmeraldGroup PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-04-2013-0083
436
OIR
38,3
online communities that is expressed by the concept of the sense of virtual community
(SOVC) (Blanchard, 2008; Blanchard and Markus, 2004).
When members of an online community develop a SOVC, they experience a feeling
of belonging to the group, group identity, mutual influence and perceived common
experiences (Blanchard and Markus, 2004). Moreover empirical research demonstrates
the informational, psychological, sociological, organisational and managerial
importance of establishing and maintaining a SOVC. More precisely, when members
of an online community develop a sense of belonging and group identity, they
feel commitment to the online community, which is an important leverage of the
participation in and sustainability of an online community (Preece, 2001). In addition
the literature shows that SOVC is also related to efficient building of organisational
knowledge (Chen et al., 2013), it leads not only to commitment to the community but
also to the brand of the company (Shang et al., 2006), it is an important predictor of
intention to purchase a product in online consumer communities (Cheng et al., 2012),
and last but not least it is associated with establishing cooperative relations and trust
among the members of an online community (Blanchard et al., 2011).
SOVChas thus been found as one of the main characteristics that set apart numerous
group communication web platforms, which produce little or no content and have
difficulty sustaining membership, from flourishing online communities that are rich in
information and social relations (Burnett and Bonnici, 2003). But how can an online
community be designedand managed so that members develop a feeling of belonging to
it, identify with it and consequently create a strong inclination to regularly return to it?
This is a very important, but under-researched, question. Researchers suggest that
carefully considering various aspects of the design and management of an online
community might ensure prolonged participation aswell as foster members’ feelings of
belonging and identification with the community (Kollock and Smith, 1996; Kraut and
Resnick, 2011; Preece, 2001). However, they also note that the question of how to design
and manage online communities to become successful in terms of SOVC has received
only scant attention (Hsu et al., 2012; Tang and Yang, 2005).
Thus this paper focuses on the management level of online communities,
investigating how online community administrators[2] can influence the establishment
and sustaining of SOVC. Notably, drawing on the theory of managing common
resources in online communities (Kollock and Smith, 1996), we will identify the main
components of norm management in online communities and investigate how r ules,
institutions, monitoring and sanctioning are associate d with SOVC. Furthermore, as no
common theoretical background to approach this question exists , we will combine
insights from social identification theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1985), the concepts of
implicit and explicit norms (Burnett an d Bonnici, 2003), and a socio-technical approach
(Kling and Courtright, 2003) to establish a more comprehensive frame work for
understanding the impact of management decisions on SOVC. More specifically we
will explore how various elements of norm management in onlin e communities such
as prominence of norms, type of moderation, type of sanctioning and presence of
reputation mechanisms are associated with SOVC, controlling for individual and
interpersonal factors, already established as important predictors of SOVC in the
literature. After developing the hypotheses we will explain the two-level design of our
study, which integrates data from a survey of online communi ty managers and data
from a survey of members of corresponding online communities. Finally we will
discuss the main conclusions, theoretical and practical implications, as well as some
research limitations and potential directions of future research.
437
Effects on the
SOVC
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