@inproceedings{3edd1110d94c46bfbe26b0ae21cb364f,
title = "Motivating user contributions in online knowledge communities: Virtual rewards and reputation",
abstract = "User contribution determines the success of online knowledge communities. As user contributions are voluntary, many online communities failed due to declining user contributions. Hence, it becomes critical to understand and design mechanisms that are effective to motivate user contributions. This paper studies the effects of two mechanisms, virtual rewards and reputation, on the quantity and quality of user contributions in online community. We analyze user-level panel data from a representative knowledge sharing platform Stack Exchange.com, and investigate whether these two mechanisms improve the quantity and quality of user contributions. Surprisingly, we find that a user's reputation does not directly motivate contribution. It is the relative reputation (ranking) that serves as the motivation. This finding highlights the importance of peer effect and social comparison in the incentive design of open collaboration platforms. Our study provides implications for platform designers on how to motivate community participants and build sustainable online knowledge communities.",
keywords = "Knowledge collaboration, Online community, Reputation, User contributions, Virtual rewards",
author = "Xiahua Wei and Wei Chen and Kevin Zhu",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 IEEE.; 48th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2015 ; Conference date: 05-01-2015 Through 08-01-2015",
year = "2015",
month = mar,
day = "26",
doi = "10.1109/HICSS.2015.452",
language = "English (US)",
series = "Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences",
publisher = "IEEE Computer Society",
pages = "3760--3769",
editor = "Bui, {Tung X.} and Sprague, {Ralph H.}",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 48th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2015",
}