Understanding digital information production in virtual communities from the perspective of Actor-Network Theory

Abstract

Organizational management has been extended to tourism virtual entities. This study is to explore the organizational practice in the virtual scenario, through which investigates the process of knowledge creation. The online questionnaire survey is applied to collect the multisource and time-lagged data from boards of Internet forums. The polynomial regression and response surface method are used to examine the (in)congruence effect. The hypothesized relations are simultaneously estimated using structural equation modeling. Results show that when the forum moderator's (i.e., formal leader) and the opinion leader's bricolage capacity are in congruence and at the high level (high-high congruence), collaborative knowledge creation in an Internet forum is found to be the highest. Moreover, asymmetrical incongruence effects are found wherein the higher bricolage capacity of opinion leaders can weaken the adverse effect of the lower bricolage capacity of formal leaders on collaborative knowledge creation in an Internet forum. This study reveals the group dynamics in the information coproduction process on virtual communities, which expands the integration of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and media networks and displays the fine-grained micro-picture of information production.