Users In Online Communities Research Articles

“Dropping the F-Bomb”: Vocabulary Choice in Feedback and Novelty in Online User Community Innovation

“Dropping the F-Bomb”: Vocabulary Choice in Feedback and Novelty in Online User Community Innovation

Comparing NPS users in nightlife settings and online communities

Comparing NPS users in nightlife settings and online communities

Unmasking user vulnerability: investigating the barriers to overcoming dark patterns in e-commerce using TISM and MICMAC analysis

PurposeE-commerce companies use dark patterns to manipulate customer decisions to survive in the crowded online market and make profit. Although some online customers are aware of the dark patterns, they cannot overcome such manipulations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify and model the barriers to overcoming dark patterns using total interpretive structural modeling (TISM).Design/methodology/approachBarriers to overcoming dark patterns were identified from the extant literature and were validated by a panel of 18 domain experts. In the modeling phase, TISM technique was used to identify the relationships between the barriers and assign priority to the barriers. Finally, the barriers were plotted and classified into three categories.FindingsUser unawareness, trust in brands and normalization of aggressive marketing were found to be the highest priority barriers. Whereas, designer bias, user fatigue, short-term user benefits and design complexity were identified as the most challenging barriers because they have least dependence over the other barriers.Research limitations/implicationsBecause TISM results are based on the opinion of domain experts, other statistical techniques could be applied for validation.Practical implicationsThis study would educate online customers, while assisting online user communities and regulatory bodies to devise strategies to overcome dark patterns. Additionally, business managers could use the study’s findings to encourage designers to embrace ethical design methods as a competitive advantage.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the research as it is first of its kind to examine the link between dark pattern barriers.

Digital Echoes of Discrimination: Investigating the Reception of Hate Speech Against Korean Chinese in Online Communities

abstract: This study aims to investigate the circulation, consumption, and learning of anonymous users’ hatred in online communities, focusing on the reception process of hate speech targeting Korean Chinese people, a group long discriminated against by native Koreans and the media. It identifies critical factors shaping attitudes toward Korean Chinese (i.e., Chaoxianzu), defining hate as long-term sentiments resulting from repeated immediate emotions triggered by specific incidents and social identities. This study adopts a grounded theory approach, employing interviews to construct a paradigm model that captures the authentic perspectives of online community users. Following the coding process, 17 categories and 38 subcategories emerged. Online audiences consolidate or maintain their attitudes through admission, resistance, exploration, and reproduction after exposure to hate expressions toward Korean Chinese. Self-intervention, personal experience, quality of verbal stimulation, and patriotism function as interventional conditions or environmental contexts throughout this process.

Perceptions and Utilization of Online Peer Support Among Informal Dementia Caregivers: Survey Study.

Informal dementia caregivers are those who care for a person living with dementia and do not receive payment (eg, family members, friends, or other unpaid caregivers). These informal caregivers are subject to substantial mental, physical, and financial burdens. Online communities enable these caregivers to exchange caregiving strategies and communicate experiences with other caregivers whom they generally do not know in real life. Research has demonstrated the benefits of peer support in online communities, but this research is limited, focusing merely on caregivers who are already online community users. We aimed to investigate the perceptions and utilization of online peer support through a survey. Following the Andersen and Newman Framework of Health Services Utilization and using REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture), we designed and administered a survey to investigate the perceptions and utilization of online peer support among informal dementia caregivers. Specifically, we collected types of information that influence whether an informal dementia caregiver accesses online peer support: predisposing factors, which refer to the sociocultural characteristics of caregivers, relationships between caregivers and people living with dementia, and belief in the value of online peer support; enabling factors, which refer to the logistic aspects of accessing online peer support (eg, eHealth literacy and access to high-speed internet); and need factors, which are the most immediate causes of seeking online peer support. We also collected data on caregivers' experiences with accessing online communities. We distributed the survey link on November 14, 2022, within two online locations: the Alzheimer's Association website (as an advertisement) and ALZConnected (an online community organized by the Alzheimer's Association). We collected all responses on February 23, 2023, and conducted a regression analysis to identifyn factors that were associated with accessing online peer support. We collected responses from 172 dementia caregivers. Of these participants, 140 (81.4%) completed the entire survey. These caregivers were aged 19 to 87 (mean 54, SD 13.5) years, and a majority were female (123/140, 87.9%) and White (126/140, 90%). Our findings show that the behavior of accessing any online community was significantly associated with participants' belief in the value of online peer support (P=.006). Moreover, of the 40 non-online community caregivers, 33 (83%) had a belief score above 24-the score that was assigned when a neutral option was selected for each belief question. The most common reasons for not accessing any online community were having no time to do so (14/140, 10%) and having insufficient online information-searching skills (9/140, 6.4%). Our findings suggest that online peer support is valuable, but practical strategies are needed to assist informal dementia caregivers who have limited time or online information-searching skills.

Лингвистические профили скрытых сообществ: морфосинтаксический аспект

The aim of the research is to identify quantitative regularities in the functioning of morphosyntactic parameters in the texts by users of hidden online communities. Through statistical methods, the paper attempts to confirm the “cohesion” of the main morphosyntactic features, the information about which was obtained using the Profiling-UD linguistic processor. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the following: based on a corpus of Russian-language social media texts, an experiment is conducted on the correlation analysis of morphosyntactic characteristics, which could become part of the future linguistic profile of hidden communities. Such profiles could be used in modern social media to enhance the functionality of recommendation systems. As a result, the research found that significant positive correlations with moderate statistical significance were identified for over 55% of hidden communities. By applying the proposed methodology, the linguistic profile of hidden communities can be further expanded with syntactic and lexical parameters, allowing for cluster analysis of communities and identification of the homogeneity/heterogeneity of the use of the characteristics across different linguistic levels in user posts from hidden communities.

The role of languages: adopting the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) model to explore information sharing patterns among multilingual users in the Chinese cultural context

PurposeCulture is considered a critical aspect of social media usage. The purpose of this paper is to explore how cultures and languages influence multilingual users' cross-cultural information sharing patterns.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a crowdsourcing survey with Amazon Mechanical Turk to collect qualitative and quantitative data from 355 multilingual users who utilize two or more languages daily. A mixed-method approach combined statistical, and cluster analysis with thematic analysis was employed to analyze information sharing patterns among multilingual users in the Chinese cultural context.FindingsIt was found that most multilingual users surveyed preferred to share in their first and second language mainly because that is what others around them speak or use. Multilingual users have more diverse sharing characteristics and are more actively engaged in social media. The results also provide insights into what incentives make multilingual users engage in social media to share information related to Chinese culture with the MOA model. Finally, the ten motivation factors include learning, entertainment, empathy, personal gain, social engagement, altruism, self-expression, information, trust and sharing culture. One opportunity factor is identified, which is convenience. Three ability factors are recognized consist of self-efficacy, habit and personality.Originality/valueThe findings are conducive to promoting the active participation of multilingual users in online communities, increasing global resource sharing and information flow and promoting the consumption of digital cultural content.

Online communities as a risk factor for gambling and gaming problems: A five-wave longitudinal study

Online communities are becoming increasingly important in everyday life, providing opportunities for leisure habits and social organization. Some online communities are also considered risky for participants, but longitudinal studies on the potential negative consequences are needed. This social psychological study was grounded in theories of group behavior and social identification. We examined the longitudinal associations between participation in gambling and gaming online communities and excessive gambling and gaming. The role of social media identity bubbles was also considered. We used linear hybrid models and longitudinal data comprising five time points (T1–T5) to analyze within- and between-person associations. Nationally representative data were collected from Finnish respondents aged 18–75 (N = 1530) between 2021 and 2023. The Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) was used to measure gambling problems, and the Internet Gaming Disorder Test (IGDT) was used to measure gaming problems. The Identity Bubble Reinforcement Scale (IBRS) measured involvement in social media identity bubbles. The results indicated that participating in online communities was associated with both gambling and gaming problems at the within- and between-person levels. Interaction analyses showed that these problems were increased among active online community users who were also involved in online identity bubbles. Online identity bubbles play a significant role in the process by which non-problematic leisure activities can become addictive behaviors.

How user innovation communities contribute to sustainability transitions. An exploration of three online communities

Online user communities have given rise to a new form of peer network collaboration. This paper examines three user innovation communities to assess their contribution to sustainability transitions, particularly in terms of exploring sustainable technical solutions and their integration into society. We study three user innovation communities by analysing internet forum interactions and conducting member interviews. To assess the impact of these communities, we use the technological innovation systems framework as an analytical perspective. Our analysis shows that user communities encompass a wide range of innovation activities and show great variation in their profiles: from strongly technology-oriented, rather anonymous networks to very broad-based communities that actively influence policy discourse, public acceptance and the social embeddedness of technologies. We conclude that innovation policy makers should recognise the transformative potential of this type of innovation and harness its potential to open up and explore alternative and more sustainable pathways.

Folk conceptualisation of small talk: A view from a Japanese online discussion forum

AbstractThe study explores the perceptions of small talk shared by the users of a Japanese online community, seeking information on their expected speech and behaviour in small talk and factors contributing to positive/negative evaluations of small talk. The study investigates a discussion thread consisting of 73 responses to a contributor's request for advice on improving small talk capabilities from the perspectives of interaction ritual (Goffman 1967), balancing obligations (Ohashi 2008, 2013, 2021) and typology of speech acts (Edmondson & House 1981; House & Kádár 2022b).

Information interaction and social support: exploring help-seeking in online communities during public health emergencies

BackgroundDuring public health emergencies, online community users can obtain social support and assistance through information interaction in the online community. This study takes the COVID-19 pandemic as the context and aims to analyze the influence of user information interaction in online communities on the acquisition of social support during this public health emergency.MethodsData collected from help-seeking posts in the “COVID-19 Patients Help-Seeking Dialog” subforum on China’s Sina Weibo were used as the research sample. The influence of the frequency of interaction and responsiveness on help seekers’ receipt of online social support was analyzed, and the moderating effect of help seekers’ identity type and intensity of online community use was explored.ResultsThe results reveal that the frequency of interaction positively impacts informational support (β = 0.367, p < 0.001) and negatively impacts emotional support (β=-0.240, p < 0.001), and the responsiveness of other users toward help-seeking posts positively impacts emotional support (β = 0.145, p < 0.01). Moreover, help seeker’s identity type and intensity of online community use significantly moderate the relationship between the frequency of interaction and the emotional support obtained by the help seeker.ConclusionsThe study highlights the impact of user information interaction on obtaining help-seeking information from online communities for social support. The initiative would facilitate the resolution of issues related to users’ information help-seeking during public health emergencies.

Creative ambivalence: implementing need‐solution pairs in household 3D printing

Household sector innovators often create solutions to address their own personal needs, but while need‐solution pairs can have important functions in creativity and design, the solutions that are initially devised as part of a working prototype are likely to be imperfect. This presents an adoption‐related puzzle that revolves around how an imperfect solution created to meet a unique personal need can subsequently be used by others. I develop a multilevel model to propose that creative ambivalence is an in‐between state for describing how mixed emotions, which capture reflective accounts in the creation of need‐solution pairs, can influence implementation. Using Thingiverse, a longitudinal dataset of designers in an online community, the designers' own reflective accounts and commentaries on their creative work, I find that creative ambivalence encourages implementation and that creative ambivalence at a personal level positively increases the implementation of need‐solution pairs in the production of household products, whereas ambivalence at an artefact level reveals no influence. In addition, solution adoption in follow‐on design derivatives accentuates the effect of creative ambivalence on implementation, so that the positive relationship between creative ambivalence and implementation is stronger when solution adoption is high. The multilevel model and results offer important theoretical contributions to research on affect and creativity and lead userness and practical implications for identifying lead users in online communities.

Factors Influencing Information Sharing among Users of Online Communities: A Meta-Analysis

When discussing the question of what influences information sharing among users of online communities and the extent to which it is strong, researchers have come up with different views, which has hindered the development of online community research. This study compares the empirical studies of previous scholars and systematically analyses their influencing factors and strengths with the help of meta-analysis. Twenty-seven Chinese and English literatures were collected and analyzed to identify and code 15 significant factors influencing information sharing among online community users, and to test for heterogeneity and publication bias. The study found that the influencing factors could be divided into 6 external factors and 9 internal factors in two categories. 7 moderately correlated factors and 8 weakly correlated factors were also derived based on correlation coefficients. Of these, technical effectiveness and control had the greatest impact on information sharing among users of online communities, followed by perceived usefulness and information quality. External factors were mainly concentrated in the moderately relevant category. Theoretical and practical implications for community operations and managers are discussed in light of these findings

Why Do I Share? Participants’ Personality Traits and Online Participation

Apart from the well-recognized popularity and importance of online question-and-answer (Q&A) communities, the sustainable growth of these platforms is a serious concern faced by online knowledge-sharing platforms. Personality traits play a significant role in shaping human behavior and decision-making. Numerous studies have attempted to understand the volunteer knowledge contribution and provide solutions to improve low participation. However, the role of personality traits of online knowledge-sharing community users in their volunteer knowledge contribution is still unexplored. Based on the big five personality traits, we have proposed a model to understand the role of personality features of online users. We have collected a cross-sectional dataset from online Q&A community users and applied the SEM-ANN model to conclude our model results that will provide insight into online community users’ contribution behavior. Findings show that agreeableness, openness, extrovert, and conscientiousness positively and neuroticism negatively influence online participation to contribute knowledge. We have also observed that the influence of personality traits significantly differs for both genders, and negativity bias is stronger in male users. Study results provide new insight into understanding online users’ behavior and provide a distinct angle to understand and add value to previous studies’ findings on online Q&A community users.

Valuing soccer players: on the valuation dynamics of an online user community

PurposeThis paper studies the interactive valuation discourses of an online user community (transfermarkt.de) that seeks to determine market values for soccer players. Despite their seemingly casual nature, these values have featured in newspapers, transfer negotiations, academic research, and capital market communication – and have thus become reified.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs netnographic research methodology to collect and thematically analyze a wide range of user entries on the platform. These entries are studied using theoretical insights from the sociology of quantification and valuation.FindingsThe analysis reveals how values are constructed in constant interaction between value-proposing users and value-justifying “experts.” This dynamic form of relational valuation positions players relative to one another as well as to actual transactions on the transfer market. In the absence of authoritative guidelines, it is this possibility and affordance for interaction that enacts a coherent valuation regime. The paper further reveals the platform's response to a disruptive event, which risked bringing the user-expert dynamics to a halt, requiring intervention from the platform to repair its valuation frame.Originality/valueThe paper responds to increased scholarly interests in the valuation of professional athletes. It contributes to the extant literature on valuation, first, by analyzing the dynamic valuation work that feeds into the social construction of values and, second, by studying platform participation and user interaction in a socially engineered online space.

Is social capital always “Capital”?: Measuring and leveraging social capital in online user communities for in-group diffusion

Literature shows that social capital promotes diffusion in online user communities (OUCs). This research aims to show that social capital acts as a double-edged sword by promoting or suppressing in-group diffusion depending on the compatibility of the product with group identity (i.e., a topic or subject of common interest in the community). We analyze the diffusion of newly released music tracks across multiple communities on Last.fm, a world-leading music social network website. Across all three dimensions of social capital (cognitive, relational, and structural dimensions), we consistently find that the compatibility of the product with group identity moderates the relationship between social capital and in-group diffusion; social capital promotes in-group diffusion of songs that are compatible with group identity but suppresses in-group diffusion of songs that are incompatible with group identity. The findings contribute to the social capital and OUC literature and provide interesting implications for OUC managers.

The Influence of Users' Status in Online User Community on Entrepreneurial Intention

This paper mainly explores the influence of users' status in online user community on entrepreneurial intention. In the online user community, users share, communicate, improve each other, and participate voluntarily. In this process, the status of users in the community has changed. Different status of users in online communities will affect user self-efficacy, thereby affecting user entrepreneurial intention. At the same time, entrepreneurial self-efficacy will also influence user entrepreneurial intention through entrepreneurial opportunity identification. We selected the CSDN community as the research object, used major social platforms to conduct a questionnaire survey on users in the community, and explored the impact of users' status in the online user community on entrepreneurial intention.

Differences in Career Preparation Behavior, Career Flexibility, Career Identity and according to Metaverse Job Perception and General Characteristics: Focusing on Online Community Users

본 연구는 메타버스의 직업에 대한 인식과 진로준비행동, 진로유연성, 진로정체감을 온라인 커뮤니티 이용자를 대상으로 분석하였다. 연구를 위해 온라인 커뮤니티 이용자 160명으로부터 자료를 수집하였고 직업 인식 및 일반적 특성에 대한 독립표본 t-검정, ANOVA분석을 실시하였다. 분석 결과 온라인 커뮤니티 이용자들의 메타버스에 대한 긍정적 인식은 69.4%, 부정적 인식은 30.6%이었으며, 메타버스 인식에 따른 진로준비행동과 진로유연성은 유의한 차이가 있었다. 또한 메타버스 직업을 알고 있는 대상자는 51.8%, 모른다는 대상자는 48.1%이었으며, 메타버스 직업 인식에 따른 진로준비행동, 진로유연성, 진로정체감은 유의한 차이가 있었다. 일반적 특성인 성별, 연령, 직업, 경제수준, 직업관심, 이직의도, 이직사유, 온라인 이용시간에 따른 진로준비행동, 진로유연성, 진로정체감은 각각 유의한 차이를 나타냈다. 따라서 메타버스에 대한 인식 변화 및 개인적 차이에 따른 지식 및 기술적 역량을 갖추도록 지원하는 것이 필요하다.

Research on the Motives and Models of Online Community Users' Participation in Enterprise New Product Development

With the advent of the "Internet +" era, companies gradually realized that users are increasingly participating in corporate activities through online communities. This user-centric innovation model has posed a huge challenge to the traditional enterprise-centric model. Therefore, it is very important to study the motivation of online community users to participate in product innovation. Based on the analysis of the existing research results, this paper divides the influencing factors of users' participation in new product development into three dimensions based on social capital theory, proposes assumptions, and introduces knowledge contribution as an intermediary variable to establish a model. At the same time, grab the user data of the MIUI section of the Xiaomi community for empirical research and verify the proposed hypothesis. Finally, combined with the results of case analysis, strategies and suggestions on how to better motivate customers to participate in the development of new products in enterprises are proposed.

"We're so much more than the in-game clan": Gaming Experiences and Group Management in Multi-Space Online Communities

The platforms that host online gaming groups and communities continue to evolve, and it has become possible to join, participate in, and consume content from groups that exist across multiple tools, platforms, and spaces at the same time. In this paper, we explore how groups use and rely upon assemblages of multiple online spaces to accomplish the "work" of participating in these gaming groups. We present an interview study with users of the100.io, a platform that hosts gaming community spaces, helps players find groups, and operates as a gaming event scheduling tool for its users. Contrary to our initial assumptions, we found that users relied upon the100 as a kind of glue for flexibly-interconnected, multi-space group configurations. These multi-space groups support our participants' desires to approach online gaming as a social practice, provide additional accountability among players, and enable multiple forms of social participation within those communities. Our findings point towards opportunities to expand social computing scholarship to better describe how users of online communities flexibly bridge across technical infrastructure.