User incentive mechanism in blockchain-based online community: An empirical study of steemit

Abstract

The rise of blockchain technology has brought innovations in various business domains and spawned a new form of organization—the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Steemit is recognized as one of the earliest blockchain-based online communities, and a typical example of DAO. By endowing community members with new roles, the decentralization of blockchain-based communities brings changes to the design of user incentive mechanisms. However, few studies have paid attention to the user incentive mechanism when users play the dual roles of social participant and community owner. On the basis of social capital theory and psychological ownership theory, this study explores Steemit's incentive mechanism by evaluating the impact of these dual roles on user active participation behavior. The study adopts a two-way fixed effect negative binomial regression to test the research model. The results show that users’ social capital, share capital, social feedback, and economic feedback positively affect their active participation behavior. At the same time, social feedback and economic feedback play moderating roles on the effects of the dual capitals. Overall, this research provides both theoretical insights and practical implications for understanding, designing, and governing blockchain-based online communities.