User Involvement in Self-Governing Content in Professional Online Communities

Increasingly, professionals seek knowledge from online communities to resolve problems that they encounter in the workplace. However, the quality and reliability of online content are still a concern. Previous research suggests that user involvement in sorting out online content is likely to be an effective means to ease some of the concern. Nonetheless, our understanding of factors that influence professionals´ involvement in sorting out quality content in professional online communities is still limited. Thus, drawing on social exchange theory, self-determined theory, and related literatures, this study proposes a research model to understand these underlying factors. The key factors include reciprocity, reputation, trust, community commitment, and self-determined motivation. A web-based survey based on validated measures in the literature is under development to collect data to empirically evaluate the research model. This study is likely to enhance our understanding of professionals ´ involvement in sorting out online content. In addition, findings of this study are expected to assist professional online communities to find ways to incentivise user involvement.