What Questions Are You Inclined to Answer? Effects of Hierarchy in Corporate Q&A Communities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingchuan Pu ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
Yuan Chen ◽  
Liangfei Qiu ◽  
Hsing Kenneth Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Groups ◽  
Question And Answer

Are employees willing to voluntarily share knowledge with their higher-ups? The existing studies show that the answer is no—employees are less likely to share knowledge with their higher-ups in the offline setting, corporate wikis, and online discussion groups. We answer the same question in a corporate question-and-answer (Q&A) community and argue that the answer can be yes. A potential-dyads approach and a quasi-natural experiment jointly demonstrate that employees are inclined to answer a question from their higher-ups and even exert more effort in those answers. Using an instrumental-variable design, we show that users who post more answers to higher-ranked individuals and who display greater effort in those answers are more likely to get promoted in subsequent years, meaning that employees do not need to worry about their careers when sharing knowledge with their higher-ups in corporate Q&A communities. Our research, together with research on other contexts, are useful for companies to take the role of the managers into account when considering which type of online community to adopt. Community designers can use our findings to better motivate knowledge sharing by considering users’ different job ranks.

scholarly journals Teaching Information Ethics

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 23-28
Author(s):  
Miguel Angel Pérez Alvarez
Keyword(s):  
Online Community ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Discussion Groups ◽  
Epistemic Community ◽  
Epistemic Communities ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
The Impact

The emergence of social networking is closely related with the new technologies improving user interface experience thus making the interaction between users more natural and intuitive. Before, the first online communities of interest were user lists and asynchronous discussion groups resembling more the form of mass mailings than informal discussions in a cafe or in a classroom. The impact of web 2.0 on scientific practices has become evident in establishing more and more epistemic communities as virtual communities and vice versa. With respect to the role of the paradigm in the constitution and operations of an epistemic community, the framework of values and the ethical reflection of that become its own form of binding and guiding principle of the theoretical action. Thus any individual who joins an online community with the ambition of an epistemic effect must develop the morals and ethics necessary to enable him/her to understand the relevant forms of their theoretical practice.

Online Discussion Groups

2011 ◽  
pp. 664-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven D’Agustino
Keyword(s):  
World Wide Web ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Groups ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
The World ◽  
Use Of The Internet

An online discussion forum is an environment on the World Wide Web for holding discussions, or the Web application software used to enable these discussions. Web-based forums, which date from the mid 1990’s, are also commonly referred to as Web forums, message boards, discussion boards, discussion forums, discussion groups, and bulletin boards. Similar to other elements of the early World Wide Web, online discussion groups were built around common interests, with participants self-selecting membership in a particular online community. These early discussion groups focused on technical aspects of online environments, early self-referential and technical discussions related to the nature, construction, and maintenance of the World Wide Web itself. The content of these early discussions was determined by the nature of these early adopters. As use of the Internet gradually permeated society, the use and content of online discussions evolved as well. A principal area of interest in the current use of online discussion groups is in education. While corporations and other business forms make use of online forums, the evolving and increasing integration of online discussions into educative efforts, enhanced by the proliferation of online education, makes education the area most impacted by this relatively recent development in communication. As Nonnecke and Preece (1999) have described, research in electronic discussion groups has focused on a number of areas, including the nature of online communities (Wellman, 1997), the development of friendship (Park & Floyd, 1996), the role of empathy in group discussions (Preece, 1998), and the differences between men and women (Roberts, 1998). Additional work has been done on specific kinds on online communities, for example, therapy (King, 1994), education (Hiltz, 1993), business (Sproull & Keisler, 1986), and health support (Preece & Ghozati, 1998).

Assigned Roles as a Structuring Tool in Online Discussion Groups: Comparison of Transactional Distance and Knowledge Sharing Behaviors

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 1303-1325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramazan Yilmaz ◽  
Fatma Gizem Karaoglan Yilmaz
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Distance Perception ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Groups ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Transactional Distance ◽  
First Year ◽  
Quasi Experimental

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of structured discussion by giving participants in online discussion groups different roles in transactional distance perception and knowledge sharing behaviors. In the study, a quasi-experimental design was utilized with pretest and posttest control groups. The study was conducted with 111 first-year undergraduate students at a university for 10 weeks. Quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques were used in the study, and the data were obtained from the Transactional Distance Scale, Knowledge Sharing Behavior Scale, and Student Opinion Determination Form. The findings indicate that online discussions carried out by assigning roles to discussion group members (starter, moderator, arguer, source searcher, and summarizer) decreased students’ transactional distance perceptions and improved knowledge sharing behaviors in online discussions. Different suggestions are offered about how to structure online discussions in accordance with the findings of the qualitative data analysis.

Knowledge Sharing in an Online Community of Volunteers: The Role of Community Munificence

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 213-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeynep Erden ◽  
Georg Von Krogh ◽  
Seonwoo Kim
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Online Community

The Formation of Network Society in Vietnam: Promise or Peril?

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 17-34
Author(s):  
Mai Duong
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
New Media ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Groups ◽  
Network Society ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Manuel Castells ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Empowered by information technology, the Vietnamese online community is becoming the most progressive and active social group in Vietnam. Using network society theory developed by Manuel Castells, this article investigates the impact of Facebook on the formation of cyber-networks in which internet users access uncensored information and voice their opinions about politics and everyday life. My arguments are based on an analysis of blogs, online discussion groups, and semi-structured interviews with Vietnamese activists, bloggers, and journalists. While the Vietnamese authorities struggle to find ways to control the dynamism of the developing cyber-society, these networks are leading Vietnamese netizens into the habit of using new media such as Facebook to become familiar with the basic values of cyber-democracy.

Two Representations of the Moscow Art Theater Audience

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 462-476
Author(s):  
Alexander A. Ushkarev ◽  
Galina G. Gedovius ◽  
Tatyana V. Petrushina
Keyword(s):  
Online Community ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Demographic Parameters ◽  
Cultural Consumption ◽  
Cultural Activity ◽  
Behavioral Differences ◽  
Technological Revolution ◽  
Definition Of

The technological revolution of recent decades has already brought art to the broadest masses, and the unexpected intervention of the pandemic has significantly accelerated the process of migration of theatrical art to the virtual space, causing the corresponding dynamics of the audience. What is the theater audience in the era of digitalization and the spread of alternative forms of cultural consumption? How does the theater build its relationship with the audience today? In search of answers, we conducted a series of sociological surveys of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater’s audience — both at the theater’s performances and in the online community of its fans. The purpose of this phase of the study was to answer the fundamental questions: do spectators surveyed in the theater and those surveyed online represent the same audience; what are their main differences; and what are the drivers of their spectator behavior? The article presents the main results of a comparative analysis of two images of the Moscow Art Theatre’s audience based on a number of content parameters by two types of surveys, as well as the results of a regression analysis of the theater attendance. The study resulted in definition of the qualitative and behavioral differences between the theater visitors and the viewers surveyed online, and identification of the factors of theater attendance for both of the represented audience groups. The study made it possible to clarify the role of age and other socio-demographic parameters in cultural activity, as well as the influence of preferred forms of cultural consumption (live contacts or online views) on one’s attitude to art, motivation and spectator behavior. The conclusions of the study, despite the uniqueness of the object, reflect the general patterns of the modern art audience’s dynamics.

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