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Ethics and the dark side of online communities: mapping the field and a research agenda

Author

Listed:
  • João J. Ferreira

    (Universidade da Beira Interior
    QUT Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research)

  • Cristina Fernandes

    (Universidade da Beira Interior
    Centre for Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Loughborough University)

  • Pedro Mota Veiga

    (University of Maia
    NECE Research Unit in Business Sciences)

  • Hussain G. Rammal

    (The University of Adelaide)

Abstract

The rapid growth in the widespread acceptance and usage of the Internet and the ease of creating online communities have brought advantages in terms of swift access to information alongside ethical problems interrelated with the dark side of the workings of these communities. Relevant research approaching ethics and the dark side of online communities has received widespread publication in a diverse set of journals with a wide variety of objectives and readers that has left its academic contribution broadly fragmented. To help shrink this gap in the literature, this study, through undertaking a systematic review, seeks to map the research on ethics and the dark side of online communities to grasp where the literature has come from and where it is going and, consequently, provide opportunities for future research. This study applied a bibliometric approach based on analysis of the bibliographic coupling with the manual coding of documents to examine the literature on the ethics and the dark side of online communities to set out a holistic framework of its different facets. The content and the thematic analysis of 53 studies identified four thematic groups: quality of the information in online communities, virtual identities, safety in online communities, and the content of online communities. The findings of this study also highlight the various shortcomings in the literature on the ethics and dark side of online communities and lead to some research questions that justify future academic research.

Suggested Citation

  • João J. Ferreira & Cristina Fernandes & Pedro Mota Veiga & Hussain G. Rammal, 2025. "Ethics and the dark side of online communities: mapping the field and a research agenda," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 99-123, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:infsem:v:23:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10257-023-00653-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10257-023-00653-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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