Jay Lee, Drexel University - “An (Almost) Free Lunch? Social Recognition and Knowledge Sharing Behavior in a Virtual Community.”

Abstract: We study whether and how symbolic rewards based on social recognition affects the behavior of knowledge sharing in a self-organized virtual community. We find that a purely symbolic reward based on peer recognition significantly boosts the quantity of the awardee’s knowledge sharing activity. This effect, however, is relatively short-lived. In contrast, longer-lasting positive effects are found for exploratory and collaborative behaviors: the users who received the symbolic reward expand the collective knowledge coverage by answering more frequently questions in topic areas outside their traditional domains and by providing more feedback to other users. There is some indication that this reward system triggers gaming behavior among the awardees who likely desire a higher-level reward in the system. While potentially leading to an inefficient distribution of collective efforts, such desires stimulated by the initial reward may also reinforce the reward system as an incentive mechanism to promote knowledge sharing within the community.