IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v8y2018i3p2158244018794773.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

User Roles and Contribution Patterns in Online Communities: A Managerial Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Ezgi Akar
  • Sona Mardikyan

Abstract

Online communities are one of the powerful digital sources for businesses to analyze online users’ behavioral data. In this sense, it is important for practitioners to know how to motivate community members, to keep them amused and regularly engaged in the community. But, practitioners should be aware that different user types exist in online communities, and they should understand these members’ diverse needs to manage these communities successfully and to give a better service to their members. Concordantly, this study focuses on the problem of the existence of different user types in online communities and development of different strategies for their motivation, involvement, and communication. Unlike previous studies, this study considers theories across managerial and social domains, conducts social network analysis, and considers users’ contribution patterns in an online community to identify particular user types in an online community. The study also presents motivational strategies for practitioners to keep each type of users frequently amused in online communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Ezgi Akar & Sona Mardikyan, 2018. "User Roles and Contribution Patterns in Online Communities: A Managerial Perspective," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(3), pages 21582440187, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:2158244018794773
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244018794773
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244018794773
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244018794773?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:cup:cbooks:9780511771576 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Peters, Kay & Chen, Yubo & Kaplan, Andreas M. & Ognibeni, Björn & Pauwels, Koen, 2013. "Social Media Metrics — A Framework and Guidelines for Managing Social Media," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 281-298.
    3. Kristine de Valck & Roberts V. Kozinets & Andrea C. Wojnicki & Sarah J.S. Wilner, 2010. "Networked Narratives: Understanding Word-of-Mouth Marketing in Online Communities," Post-Print hal-00458424, HAL.
    4. Fullerton, Richard, et al, 1999. "An Experimental Investigation of Research Tournaments," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(4), pages 624-636, October.
    5. Kozinets, Robert V., 1999. "E-tribalized marketing?: the strategic implications of virtual communities of consumption," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 252-264, June.
    6. Samer Faraj & Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa & Ann Majchrzak, 2011. "Knowledge Collaboration in Online Communities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1224-1239, October.
    7. Salim L Azar & Joana César Machado & Leonor Vacas-de-Carvalho & Ana Mendes, 2016. "Motivations to interact with brands on Facebook – Towards a typology of consumer–brand interactions," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(2), pages 153-178, March.
    8. Jonathan W. Palmer, 2002. "Web Site Usability, Design, and Performance Metrics," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 13(2), pages 151-167, June.
    9. Fuller, Johann & Jawecki, Gregor & Muhlbacher, Hans, 2007. "Innovation creation by online basketball communities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 60-71, January.
    10. Easley,David & Kleinberg,Jon, 2010. "Networks, Crowds, and Markets," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521195331.
    11. Tom Z. J. Fu & Qianqian Song & Dah Ming Chiu, 2014. "The academic social network," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(1), pages 203-239, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shannon Mason & Yusuke Sakurai, 2021. "A ResearchGate-way to an international academic community?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 1149-1171, February.
    2. Akrati Saxena & Harita Reddy, 2022. "Users roles identification on online crowdsourced Q&A platforms and encyclopedias: a survey," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 285-317, May.
    3. Işıl Avşar Arık & Birsen Şahin Kütük, 2022. "The Relationship Between Online Socialization and Online Social Identity," Journal of Economy Culture and Society, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 66(66), pages 221-234, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ana Babić Rosario & Kristine Valck & Francesca Sotgiu, 2020. "Conceptualizing the electronic word-of-mouth process: What we know and need to know about eWOM creation, exposure, and evaluation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 422-448, May.
    2. Carmela Milano, 2015. "Democratization or else vulgarization of cultural capital? The role of social networks in theater’s audience behavior," Working Papers CEB 15-004, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    3. Yadav, Manjit S. & de Valck, Kristine & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten & Hoffman, Donna L. & Spann, Martin, 2013. "Social Commerce: A Contingency Framework for Assessing Marketing Potential," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 311-323.
    4. Veloutsou, Cleopatra & Black, Iain, 2020. "Creating and managing participative brand communities: The roles members perform," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 873-885.
    5. Vallaster, Christine & von Wallpach, Sylvia, 2013. "An online discursive inquiry into the social dynamics of multi-stakeholder brand meaning co-creation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1505-1515.
    6. Orelj, Ana & Torfason, Magnus Thor, 2022. "They didn't ask: Online innovation communities as a latent dynamic capability," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    7. Bradford, Tonya Williams & Grier, Sonya A. & Henderson, Geraldine Rosa, 2017. "Weight Loss Through Virtual Support Communities: A Role for Identity-based Motivation in Public Commitment," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 9-23.
    8. Rosenthal, Benjamin & Brito, Eliane P.Z., 2017. "How virtual brand community traces may increase fan engagement in brand pages," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 375-384.
    9. Nikolaus Franke & Peter Keinz & Katharina Klausberger, 2013. "“Does This Sound Like a Fair Deal?”: Antecedents and Consequences of Fairness Expectations in the Individual’s Decision to Participate in Firm Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(5), pages 1495-1516, October.
    10. Liu, Jialing & Wei, Jiang & Liu, Yang & Jin, Duo, 2022. "How to channel knowledge coproduction behavior in an online community: Combining machine learning and narrative analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    11. Mardon, Rebecca & Molesworth, Mike & Grigore, Georgiana, 2018. "YouTube Beauty Gurus and the emotional labour of tribal entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 443-454.
    12. Wang, Xia & Yu, Chunling & Wei, Yujie, 2012. "Social Media Peer Communication and Impacts on Purchase Intentions: A Consumer Socialization Framework," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 198-208.
    13. Pan, Yue & Zhang, Jason Q., 2011. "Born Unequal: A Study of the Helpfulness of User-Generated Product Reviews," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(4), pages 598-612.
    14. Wu, Mao-Ying & Pearce, Philip L., 2014. "Chinese recreational vehicle users in Australia: A netnographic study of tourist motivation," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 22-35.
    15. Ann Majchrzak & Arvind Malhotra, 2016. "Effect of Knowledge-Sharing Trajectories on Innovative Outcomes in Temporary Online Crowds," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 685-703, December.
    16. Tonya Williams Bradford, 2021. "We can fix this! Donor activism for nonprofit supply generation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 397-417, March.
    17. Elia, Gianluca & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio & Urbinati, Andrea, 2020. "Implementing open innovation through virtual brand communities: A case study analysis in the semiconductor industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    18. King, Robert Allen & Racherla, Pradeep & Bush, Victoria D., 2014. "What We Know and Don't Know About Online Word-of-Mouth: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 167-183.
    19. Pedeliento, Giuseppe & Andreini, Daniela & Veloutsou, Cleopatra, 2020. "Brand community integration, participation and commitment: A comparison between consumer-run and company-managed communities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 481-494.
    20. Gustafson, Brandon M. & Pomirleanu, Nadia & John Mariadoss, Babu & Johnson, Jean L., 2021. "The social buyer: A framework for the dynamic role of social media in organizational buying," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 806-814.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:2158244018794773. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.