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.

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.     

Motivations in virtual health communities and their relationship to community,connectedness and stress

This study explores the relationships between motivations for joining virtual health communities, online behaviors, and psycho-social outcomes. A sample of 144 women from two virtual health communities focusing on infertility completed survey measures assessing motivations, posting and receiving support, connectedness, community, and stress. Our results indicate that socio-emotional support motivations for joining the community were associated with posting support within the virtual community, while informational motivations were related to receiving support. Further, receiving support was associated with greater sense of virtual community as well as more general feelings of connectedness, which was related to less stress. Implications for virtual health community research are discussed.     

虚拟场景生成中的LOD技术综述

虚拟现实技术以其关键技术使参与者产生高度逼真的“现实”感觉。目前的计算机图形学水平,只要有足够的时间,就能生成准确的计算机图像。但是,虚拟场景的生成对图形的实时性要求很高,因此,不得小降低虚拟场景的几何复杂度和图像质量,或采用其它技术来提高虚拟场景的逼真程度和生成速度。LOD技术是虚拟场景自动生成和快速绘制技术研究领域的一个很有前途的研究方向。该文介绍了虚拟场景生成中LOD模型的选择、生成,着重分析了典型模型生成算法和存在的问题,展望了LOD技术未来的研究方向。     

Knowledge sharing in online health communities: A social exchange theory perspective

Online health communities (OHC) are becoming valuable platforms for patients to communicate and find support. These communities are different from general online communities. The knowledge shared in an OHC can be categorized as either general (public) or specific (private), and each category is shared in vastly different ways. Using the social exchange theory, we propose a benefit vs. cost knowledge sharing model for OHCs. The benefits are mainly based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and the cost includes cognitive and executional costs. We use this benefit vs. cost model to examine how OHC members share general and specific knowledge. Data were collected from 323 users of two well-known OHCs in China and were analyzed using the structural equation model. The results demonstrate that three factors positively impact the sharing of both general and specific knowledge: a sense of self-worth, members’ perceived social support, and reputation enhancement. Another factor, face concern, has a negative influence on specific knowledge sharing and a positive influence on general knowledge sharing. Executional cost only negatively impacts general knowledge sharing, and cognitive cost only negatively impacts specific knowledge sharing. This study of OHCs reveals that personal benefits promote knowledge sharing and costs prohibit it. These impacts vary between general knowledge and specific knowledge sharing.     

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.     

Effects of review spam in a firm-initiated virtual brand community: Evidence from smartphone customers

Previous studies of spam focus on how to develop effective and efficient algorithms and technologies to monitor, identify, and filter spam to minimize its negative consequences. Few studies have examined the social and psychological impacts of spam on social media users and participants of virtual brand communities (VBCs). This paper develops and tests a research model to explain the mechanism of how review spam influences customer participation in VBCs. We collected both objective data and subjective data from smartphone users in China. We also developed a measure of review spam using objective data. We found that hyper review had positive effects on membership and influence (two dimensions of sense of virtual communities (SOVC)), while the effects of defaming review on membership and influence were negative. Neither hyper view nor defaming review impacted immersion (the third dimension of SOVC). Further, non-review had negative effects on all three dimensions of SOVC that positively influenced future customer participation.     

Sense of virtual community: A follow up on its measurement

Understanding the dynamics of virtual communities has become an important issue for research. One concept that explains the participation in online communities is a sense of virtual community (SOVC), which is based on the offline equivalent sense of community (SOC) and describes a “spirit of belonging together”. Although these two concepts are similar, their measurement is problematic. Inspired by earlier studies, which investigated whether traditional SOC measures are appropriate for measuring SOVC, we adopted the SOC index 2 (SCI2) recently developed by Chavis et al. in a virtual setting. Our aim was to determine whether the refined SOC measurement is more suitable for virtual communities than their forerunners. We tested the SCI2 in a popular German community on 312 respondents. Our results showed that a thorough measure of SOVC still needs further refinement. We also discuss possibilities for improvement.     

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.     

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.     

Generating quality open content: A functional group perspective based on the time, interaction, and performance theory

We applied the input-process-output approach and time, interaction, and performance theory to examine the input factors (organisational, group-related, and individual) and process factors (group production, group well-being, and member support) that yield group effectiveness, measured as high-quality articles in Wikipedia. The results provided evidence of the positive effects of: group size and shared experience on both group process variables and group effectiveness; group heterogeneity on group production; organisational support and member activeness on group well-being; member activeness on member support; and organisational support and member activeness on group effectiveness.     

Investigating the intention to purchase digital items in social networking communities: A customer value perspective

Some social networking community service providers have earned revenue by selling digital items to their community members. We examined SNC member decisions to purchase digital items based on customer value theory. Six factors were extracted from three dimensions of customer value: functional, social, and emotional value. Our findings indicated that the effects of value on member purchase intentions were significant in terms of the emotional and social dimensions. Our results should help SNC providers by improving their sales of digital items.     

Fundamental issues of decision support systems: A consequentialist perspective

While considerable enthusiasm for DSS exists in many quarters, there are still a number of fundamental issues which have not been seriously addressed. Of particular concern, is how DSS is likely to affect organizations. This philosophically motivated paper analyzes the underlying assumptions of DSS and develops an approach for consequence determination. Moreover, the paper uses this approach to assess how DSS might affect various organizational elements.     

Imaginal and emotional experiences in pleasure-oriented IT usage: A hedonic consumption perspective

Based on the marketing theory of hedonic consumption, this study examines the effects of six types of imaginal and emotional experiences on using pleasure-oriented IT. Associated hypotheses are tested using questionnaire responses from 443 online game players. The results provide strong support for the major hypotheses and indicate that the determinants of behavior may differ in using pleasure-oriented versus productivity-oriented IT. This paper contributes not only to the application of a marketing theory to IS research, but also to improved understanding of using pleasure-oriented IT and of why people use technologies that are not particularly useful from a productivity standpoint.