Users´ Influence on the Success of Online Communities

Author

Assmann, J. ; Sandner, P. ; Ahrens, S.

Author_Institution

Inst. for Inf., Organ. & Manage., LMU Munich, Munich

fYear

2009

fDate

5-8 Jan. 2009

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

10

Abstract

This paper examines how different facets of favorable user behavior drive the success of an online community by using a unique data set with surveys from 1,389 participants from the German branch of an international operating massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) community and enhancing it with the game´s log files. We argue that success of the community depends on how these users contribute to the underlying success dimensions content, revenue, loyalty and growth. At this, we identify the importance and impact of overlapping online and offline social networks. Moreover, we find that satisfaction with the platform and commitment to the community have a major influence on our success variables. Interestingly, the influence of commitment on favorable user behavior is not moderated by membership tenure.

Keywords

behavioural sciences; computer games; social networking (online); log files; massively multiplayer online game community; online communities; user behavior; Communities; Computer networks; Conference management; Data acquisition; File servers; Information management; Management information systems; Social network services; Stability;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

System Sciences, 2009. HICSS '09. 42nd Hawaii International Conference on

Conference_Location

Big Island, HI

ISSN

1530-1605

Print_ISBN

978-0-7695-3450-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HICSS.2009.490

Filename

4755639