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Forum Size and Content Contribution per Person: A Field Experiment

Author

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  • Jiye Baek

    (Korea University Business School, Korea University, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul 02841 Korea)

  • Jesse Shore

    (Information Systems, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215)

Abstract

Promoting contribution of content is a key challenge for platforms that support the collective creation or transfer of knowledge. We use a field experiment on a massive open online course to study the role of forum size (number of people in a forum) in the contribution of content per person. We find that larger forums elicit more contributions per person. The number of questions and other help-seeking threads posted per person was unchanged by forum size, but replies and other more conversational posts increased sharply. Most of the positive effect of size was in a subset of socially responsive subjects. The implication of social responsiveness driving our results is that the unequal distribution of contribution in online platforms is unlikely to be easily changed: if more contributions are elicited from infrequent contributors, the greatest contributors would contribute even more because there would be more to respond to.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiye Baek & Jesse Shore, 2020. "Forum Size and Content Contribution per Person: A Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5906-5924, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:66:y:12:i:2020:p:5906-5924
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2019.3484
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