User Roles in Online Communities and Their Moderating Effect on Online Community Usage Intention: An Integrated Approach

ABSTRACT

Recently, it has been evident that the analysis of user data and content in online environments allows practitioners to understand how to motivate online community members and keep them frequently involved in the community, and so to manage these communities successfully. In this sense, practitioners should comprehend community members’ usage intentions to give a better service and to motivate them. However, different user types engage in such communities, so understanding their diverse needs is also essential for practitioners. In parallel, this article addresses the problem of the different user types existing in online communities, and each of them requires different strategies to be motivated and involved in the community. Thus, unlike previous studies, this study firstly identifies user roles in an online community based on the structural role theory, social network analysis, and community members’ contribution behavior. After that, it investigates members’ usage intentions based on the technology acceptance model and examines the moderating effect of identified user roles on their usage intentions. The study also guides practitioners to develop motivational strategies to keep each type of member continually satisfied.

Acknowledgement

We thank Serkan Inci, the founder of Inci Sozluk, for his help and support for data access.

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by Bogazici University Research Fund with Grant Number 12751.

Notes on contributors

Ezgi Akar

Ezgi Akar received her Ph.D. degree in the field of management information systems from Bogazici University in 2018. In the meantime, she is a visiting assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her research areas are social networks, social media analytics, marketing research, and data mining.

Sona Mardikyan

Sona Mardikyan received her Ph.D. degree in quantitative methods from Istanbul University. She is working in the management information systems department of Bogazici University as an associate professor. Her research areas are statistics, quantitative methods, information systems and technologies, and data mining.

Tevfik Dalgic

Tevfik Dalgic received his BA and MBA from Middle East Technical University. His Ph.D. is from the Ankara Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences. He is a professor of Organisation, Strategy and International Management at the University of Texas-Dallas since 2000.