On the linguistic nature of cyberspace and virtual communities

This paper argues for a linguistic explanation of the nature of Virtual Communities. Virtual Communities develop and grow in electronic space. or cyberspace. Authors such as Benedikt Meyrowitz and Mitchell have theorised about the nature of electronic space whilst Lefebvre. Popper, Hakim Bey (aka Lamborn Wilson) and Kuhn have theorised more generally about the nature of space. Extending this tradition and the works of these authors, this paper presents a language based perspective on the nature of electronic spaces. Behaviour in cyberspace is based on and regulated by hardware, software tools and interfaces. A definition of electronic space cannot be given beyond its linguistic characteristics, which underlie and sustain it. The author believes that the more users and developers understand the relationship between language and cyberspace, the more they will be able to use specific metaphors for dwelling and inhabiting it. In particular, MUDs/MOOs and the Web are interesting places for testing and observing social behaviours and dynamics.     

Fostering the determinants of knowledge sharing in professional virtual communities

Professional virtual communities (PVCs), which are formed on the Internet, are expected to serve the needs of members for communication, information, and knowledge sharing. The executives of organizations should consider PVCs as a new innovation or knowledge pool since members share knowledge. However, many PVCs have failed due to members’ low willingness to share knowledge with other members. Thus, there is a need to understand and foster the determinants of members’ knowledge sharing behavior in PVCs. This study develops an integrated model designed to investigate and explain the relationships between contextual factors, personal perceptions of knowledge sharing, knowledge sharing behavior, and community loyalty. Empirical data was collected from three PVCs and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) to verify the fit of the hypothetical model. The results show that trust significantly influences knowledge sharing self-efficacy, perceived relative advantage and perceived compatibility, which in turn positively affect knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, the study finds that the norm of reciprocity does not significantly affect knowledge sharing behavior. The results of the study can be used to identify the motivation underlying individuals’ knowledge sharing behavior in PVCs. By investigating the impacts of contextual factors and personal perceptions on knowledge sharing behavior, the integrated model better explains behavior than other proposed models. This study might help executives of virtual communities and organizations to manage and promote these determinants of knowledge sharing to stimulate members’ willingness to share knowledge and enhance their virtual community loyalty. As only little empirical research has been conducted on the impact of knowledge sharing self-efficacy, perceived relative advantage, and perceived compatibility on the individual’s knowledge sharing behavior in PVCs, the empirical evidence reported here makes a valuable contribution in this highly important area.     

Sustainable virtual communities: suggestions from the colonial model

While virtual community research has contributed to the understanding of the virtual community sustainability, a need for a systematic model exists. In this paper, we propose a model of sustainable virtual communities based on the sustainability properties of animal colonies in nature. The premise of our model is that if we manage to replicate the sustainability properties of colonial systems in virtual communities, they can become longer lasting. We also present the results of an exploratory case study. The study shows that colonial properties form a construct that predicts member perceptions of their community being sustainable. While our primary objective is the conceptual introduction of the colonial principles of sustainability, the case study provides some early indications that these principles may help design systems that can bind virtual communities more permanently.

Determinants of successful virtual communities: Contributions from system characteristics and social factors

Although there is growing interest in virtual communities, few studies have examined them from an integrated viewpoint including technical and social perspectives. By expanding on DeLone and McLean’s IS success model, the author constructed a model of the impact of system characteristics (e.g., information and system quality) and social factors (e.g., trust and social usefulness) in implementing successful virtual communities. Data collected from 198 community members provided support for the model. Results showed that both member satisfaction and a sense of belonging were determinants of member loyalty in the community. Additionally, information and system quality were found to affect member satisfaction, while trust influenced the members’ sense of belonging to the community. Finally, the findings provided understanding of the factors that measured virtual community success. Implications of my study are discussed.     

Formalizing the evolution of virtual communities

Collaboration increasingly takes place in virtual communities using the Internet. These communities are socio-technical systems that tend to evolve strongly and become more complex over time. To ensure that the changes to these complex socio-technical systems are meaningful and acceptable to the community as a whole, the relevant members of the community need to be involved in their specification. The RENISYS method conceptualizes community specification processes as conversations for specification by relevant members. It supports this process in two steps. First, it uses formal composition norms to select the relevant community members who need to be involved in a particular conversation for specification. It then uses a formal model of conversations for specification to determine the acceptable conversational moves that the selected community members can make, as well as the status of their responsibilities and accomplishments at each point in time. By combining composition norms with conversations for specification, the specification processes can be precisely tailored to the specification support needs of the community.     

A framework for virtual organization creation in a breeding environment

Effectiveness in the process of creating virtual organizations (VO) is an important pre-condition for having a truly dynamic VOs, in response to collaboration opportunities in fast changing market contexts. A realistic approach to materialize agility in VO creation is defined under the assumption of a VO Breeding Environment (VBE), that guarantees the preparedness of its members to quickly get engaged in collaboration processes. After a survey of past approaches and a characterization of the VBE concept, a discussion of the process and suggested functionalities towards a VO creation framework are presented in this context. Finally a list of supporting tools is described and future research challenges are pointed out.     

Testing a model of sense of virtual community

A distinguishing feature of virtual communities is their sense of community, i.e., their participants’ feelings of membership, identity, influence, and attachment with each other. This study tests a model in which members’ perceptions of the group’s norms mediate the relationships between supporting each other and identifying each other with the members’ sense of virtual community. Two studies were conducted providing partial support for the model. The results show that the perception of norms mediate the relationship between SOVC and (a) observing and publicly exchanging support, (b) perceiving that others know one’s identity, and (c) using technical features to learn and create identity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

POPEYE: providing collaborative services for ad hoc and spontaneous communities

Next generation collaborative systems will offer mobile users seamless and natural collaboration amongst a diversity of agents, within distributed, knowledge-rich and virtualized working environments. This ambitious goal faces numerous challenges from the underlying communication infrastructure to the high level application services, with the aim to provide services with the appropriate quality (such as persistence, synchronization, and security). Most currently available tools supporting collaboration address either rather traditional and rigid intra-organizational collaboration scenarios or, at the opposite, completely free and unstructured open communities’s interactions. Emerging dynamic, flexible and ad hoc collaboration schemes are hardly or not supported at all. The POPEYE framework offers collaborative services for applications that aim to enable spontaneous collaboration over P2P wireless ad hoc groups, where fixed infrastructure is not a prerequisite, where virtual communities can emerge spontaneously and share data with the appropriate quality of service for business applications (persistence, synchronization, security, etc.).     

Constructing social systems through computer-mediated communication

The question of whether computer-mediated communication can support the formation of genuine social systems is addressed in this paper. Our hypothesis, that technology creates new forms of social systems beyond real-life milieus, includes the idea that the technology itself may influence how social binding emerges within online environments. In real-life communities, a precondition for social coherence is the existence of social conventions. By observing interaction in virtual environments, we found the use of a range of social conventions. These results were analysed to determine how the use and emergence of conventions might be influenced by the technology. One factor contributing to the coherence of online social systems, but not the only one, appears to be the degree of social presence mediated by the technology. We suggest that social systems can emerge by computer-mediated communication and are shaped by the media of the specific environment.     

Understanding and analysing activity and learning in virtual communities

Abstract  The purpose of this study is to provide a preliminary framework to observe, analyse and evaluate both activity and learning in virtual communities. So various types of virtual communities will be studied by examining their relationship to socialisation and learning. After a presentation of the main ideas of Wenger's social learning theory, the principal components of the social context of the emergence and evolution of virtual communities will be described. It will show how taking this context into account enables the definition of four principal types of virtual communities: community of interest, goal-oriented community of interest, learners' community and community of practice and describe how the activity of these communities develops according to the goals they set for themselves and to the strategies they adopt to reach them. For each type of virtual community, an attempt will be made to determine the process of negotiation of meaning at the base of learning, and to describe the learning performed in terms of participation and reification processes.     

Interactive effects of individual- and group-level variables on virtual purchase behavior in online communities

Focusing on social network theories, we examine the interactive influence of both group-level (i.e. community influences) and individual-level variables (intrinsic and extrinsic motivations) simultaneously as the drivers of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) players’ virtual purchase behavior. We demonstrate that several aspects of real-world behavior are reflected in virtual purchase behavior. Notably, normative interpersonal influences and community identity are critical drivers and moderators of virtual purchases. Moreover, clear advancement and enjoyment opportunities offer important triggers for virtual purchase behavior. This study provides insights for game developers to increase virtual purchases, and identifies domain-specificity of each gaming platform.     

Investigating recognition-based performance in an open content community: A social capital perspective

As the open source movement grows, it becomes important to understand the dynamics that affect the motivation of participants who contribute their time freely to such projects. One important motivation that has been identified is the desire for formal recognition in the open source community. We investigated the impact of social capital in participants’ social networks on their recognition-based performance; i.e., the formal status they are accorded in the community. We used a sample of 465 active participants in the Wikipedia open content encyclopedia community to investigate the effects of two types of social capital and found that network closure, measured by direct and indirect ties, had a significant positive effect on increasing participants’ recognition-based performance. Structural holes had mixed effects on participants’ status, but were generally a source of social capital.     

The influence of self-discrepancy between the virtual and real selves in virtual communities

Virtual communities enable one to pretend to be a different person or to possess a different self-identity at little or no cost. Despite the ubiquity of such communities, there is limited theoretical and empirical research regarding the effect of taking on a different self-identity associated with one’s psychological and behavioral functioning in those communities. To address this issue, drawing on the self-concept rooted in sociopsychology, this study employs the self-discrepancy index, which assesses the degree of differences between one’s virtual and real selves; the study goes onto develop a theoretical framework that links self-discrepancy, psychological states (i.e., autonomy, recovery, and catharsis), and behavior (i.e., contribution quality and quantity). The results of an analysis involving 299 survey participants show that self-discrepancy has a significant influence on autonomy and recovery and that this, in turn, influences levels of contribution quality and quantity. It is of note that the results of this study indicate that catharsis is inversely related to contribution quality. Furthermore, subgroup analysis reveals that the effects of self-discrepancy on contribution vary depending on whether the virtual community is utilitarian or hedonic.     

Factors affecting members' trust belief and behaviour intention in virtual communities

In this research we investigate whether antecedent factors of participant trust and institutional trust significantly influence members' trust belief towards virtual communities. Further, we investigate how members' trust levels affect their behaviour intention. A model of factors that affect members' trust in virtual communities is constructed. We analysed 625 valid online questionnaires obtained from virtual communities related to travel, games, and computer information. The findings suggest that benefit attraction and shared value have significant positive effects on building participant trust, and monitoring has a significant positive effect on building institutional trust. Trust building influences both members' stickiness in virtual communities and their willingness to share information. This research suggests that the extent to which members trust community-based website environments significantly influences their practical behaviour in such environments.     

Precursors of trust in virtual health communities: A hierarchical investigation

Lack of trust can have a negative influence on consumers’ willingness to share and adopt information in virtual health communities. However, not much is known about factors that influence the development of trust in such communities. This paper examined precursors of trust in virtual health communities. Data were collected from 361 users of virtual health community sites in South Africa. Structural equation modelling using version 23 of AMOS was used to analyse the data. The findings show that information usefulness, community responsiveness and shared vision have significant influence on consumers’ overall trust in health-related virtual communities. The findings, however, show differences in the extent to which precursor variables influence different dimensions of overall trust. The study provides insights that can help managers of such sites to effectively foster the development of trust in their communities.     

Characteristics and usage patterns of older people in a 3D online multi-user virtual environment

3D online multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) have a lot of potential in supporting older people in their daily lives, yet little research has been conducted to explore how older people engage with this type of technology. This paper aims to investigate the characteristics, user groups and activity patterns (particularly social networks and gift giving behaviour) of older users within a 3D online multi-user virtual environment. Data from approximately 5000 online user profiles of older and younger users from a 3D MUVE, namely IMVU, was collected for analysis. Overall, we identified several distinct patterns of use (e.g. size of social ties, level of reciprocity, etc.) among older users when compared with younger users. We also found that despite the capabilities of 3D MUVEs to provide the users immersion in alternative realities, a feature well embraced by younger users in this study, older users seemed more interested in activities which serve as an extension to their physical life.     

A fast parametric deformation mechanism for virtual reality applications

Virtual reality technologies have been adopted in a wide variety of applications for its interactive ability and realistic senses. Despite early implementations regard VR only as a medium for lively animation; a practical VR work must deliver precise deformation on virtual objects based on real-time interactions. The exact ability is especially important for users who utilize VR to do collaborative design, for it will greatly reduce the amount of on-line computations on operating substance-based interactions, and consequently facilitates the collaboration. Therefore, this research will employ neural networks to memorize the deformation behavior of solid objects, and then perform instant and accurate deformations in the virtual environment. The proposed method also allows design variations for parametric features, and uses feature parameters as variable switches to adjust the deformation mechanism. There are three steps in the method: (1) For a sample object, generate force-induced deformations using the finite-element method; (2) memorize the surface displacements with artificial neural networks; and (3) convert the parametric deformation matrices into Behavioral Modules for the virtual reality engine. In the implementations, ANSYS is used to generate model deformations, and MATLAB is used to perform neural training. Finally, a virtual environment is built using Virtools where customized Building Blocks are created to present interactive deformation behavior. Experiments were carried out on an Intel XEON workstation with nVIDIA Quadro4 750GL display device. Sample workparts are tested to examine the ability of the method. The results show that both training accuracy and real-time capability are more than satisfactory.     

In justice we trust: Exploring knowledge-sharing continuance intentions in virtual communities of practice

Knowledge has become the key to success in the global knowledge economy, not only for organizations, but also in virtual communities of practice (VCoPs). The major challenge in sustaining a VCoP is acquiring knowledge spontaneously from members. This challenge leads to our research question: what encourages VCoP members to voluntarily and continuously help one another through continuous knowledge-sharing? In this study, we integrate three research streams—justice, trust, and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB)—into one model in order to analyze the antecedents of knowledge-sharing continuance intentions in VCoPs. Our model theorizes that the four dimensions of justice (i.e., distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice) affect two different referents of trust (i.e., trust in members and trust in management). We further link these trust constructs to altruism (i.e., OCB directed to the individual) or conscientiousness (i.e., OCB directed to the organization), which in turn effect the knowledge-sharing continuance intentions in VCoPs. This hypothetical model is empirically validated using data collected from 142 members of an IT-oriented VCoP in Taiwan. Our integrated model has been helpful in VCoP research as it broadens our theoretical understanding of knowledge-sharing continuance intentions.     

Community based innovation: How to integrate members of virtual communities into new product development

Online consumer groups represent a large pool of product know-how. Hence, they seem to be a promising source of innovation. At present, except for open source software, little is known about how to utilize this know-how for new product development. In this article we explore if and how members of virtual communities can be integrated into new product development. We explain how to identify and access online communities and how to interact with its members in order to get valuable input for new product development. This approach we term “Community Based Innovation.” The Audi case illustrates the applicability of the method and underscores the innovative capability of consumers encountered in virtual communities. Johann Füller is assistant professor in marketing at Innsbruck University School of Management and board member of HYVE AG, a company specialized in virtual customer integration. He received his Ph.D. in business administration at the Innsbruck University School of Management. Johann holds a degree in mechanical engineering, and industrial engineering and management. His research interests are in the field of innovation creation in online communities and in virtual consumer integration into new product development. Michael Bartl is member of the management board at the HYVE AG in Munich, Germany, specialised in Customized Innovation and Product Design. He finished his Ph.D. Thesis in Business Administration at the Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management (WHU) obtained his Dipl. Kfm. from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and his B.A. (Hons) from the University of Westminster London. Holger Ernst is professor at WHU—Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany where he holds the Chair for Technology and Innovation Management. He is currently visiting professor at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. His main research interests are in the fields of technology and innovation management, intellectual property management, new product development and entrepreneurship. He has published in the Journal of Product Innovation Management, International Journal of Management Reviews, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Research Policy and R&D Management. He consults multiple European organizations in the area of technology, patent and innovation management. Hans Muhlbacher is Professor of Business Administration at the Innsbruck University School of Management. He has been President of the European Marketing Academy and currently is the Associate Editor for International Business of the Journal of Business Research. All along his career he has extensively taught internationally at business schools such as ESSEC or universities such as Emory University, Tulane University, or Paris Pantheon-Assass. His main research interests are in the field of strategy formation, branding, and innovation.