How to mend the dormant user in Q&A communities? A social cognitive theory-based study of consistent geeks of StackOverflow

ABSTRACT

Low user participation and less knowledge contribution seriously threaten the sustainability of online question and answers communities. Although researchers studied the different aspects of knowledge contribution and proposed useful suggestions, there is still no thorough study on the knowledge contribution pattern of consistent geeks’ that can help improve low participation. According to social cognitive and self-determination theory, peers follow credible sources or role models in their participation patterns and are influenced by the community environment. Based on social cognitive and self-determination theory, we have studied the most consistent geeks of StackOverflow for the period between 2010–2020 to employ the results to activate dormant users. Two-step system GMM results revealed that most users take a free ride and hesitate to reciprocate; knowledge-seeking negatively influences the quantity of contributed knowledge. Peer recognition and repudiation positively influence the knowledge contribution of active geeks, whereas reputation scores and badges negatively influence the contributed knowledge's quantity and quality. Social interaction's role as moderator is also different for quantity and quality of knowledge contributed. Study results improve the existing literature and provide comprehensive managerial implications to improve low participation and create a progressive knowledge contribution environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Consistent geeks; low participation
• knowledge contribution
• Q&A communities
• GMM

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The dataset used in this study is publically available at the following address data.stackexchange.com.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors who contributed to the study have no financial or professional conflict of interest to disclose.

Notes

1 https://stackexchange.com/leagues/1/alltime/stackoverflow

2 https://stackexchange.com/sites#traffic

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Number 72174018, 71932002]; the Philosophy and sociology science fund from Beijing Municipal Education Commission [Grant Number SZ202110005001], and Beijing Natural Science Fund [Grant Number 9222001].