Impact of anonymity on roles of personal and group identities in online communities

Kim, Kyung Kyu; Lee, Ae Ri; Lee, Un-Kon

doi:10.1016/j.im.2018.07.005

Cited by 37 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…When individuals maintain persistent identities over time that capture prior behaviors or details about certain skills (as in the case of identified contributors), interactions in FDP could also encourage them to develop bond-based attachment (Ren et al, 2012). Social interaction and personal information constitute critical ingredients for developing strong bonds, which will ultimately allow developers to trust and understand one another better (Kim et al, 2019). Furthermore, reputation, identity, and peer effects will predominate in this case as developers seek to build their reputation among the peers, which will result in more technical, detailed FDP that adhere to the group's strict norms and, thus, help project performance by focusing developers' efforts (Roberts et al, 2006;Shah, 2006).…”

Section: Volume 12 Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…While researchers have theoretically (Anonymous, 1998;Rains & Scott, 2007;Reicher et al, 1995) and empirically (Jackson et al, 2018;Kim et al, 2019;Klein, Spears, & Reicher, 2007;Kolbitsch, 2006;Pisonneault & Heppel, 1997;Postmes, Spears, Sakhel, & de Groot, 2001;Tanis & Postmes, 2007) examined the role that anonymity plays in group-level outcomes, we lack knowledge about how APC per se affect OSS projects' performance. Some studies suggest a negative relationship between anonymous participation and group outcomes (Kim et al, 2019;Zimbardo, 1969), some suggest a positive relationship (Postmes et al, 2001;Reicher et al, 1995), and still others suggest contingencies that alter the relationship (Ren et al, 2007). In this section, we review these studies as a foundation to develop hypotheses to further understand the role that APC play in open and distributed innovation projects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Socially ambiguous identities permeate online collaborative peer production communities (Faraj, Jarvenpaa, & Majchrzak, 2011;Kim, Lee, & Lee, 2019;McDonald, Hill, Greenstadt, & Forte, 2019). Peer production models such as Wikipedia, citizen science, and open source software (OSS) projects allow people to contribute anonymously without revealing themselves to facilitate broader participation (Arazy, Ortega, Nov, Yeo, & Balila, 2015;Jackson, Crowston, & Østerlund, 2018;von Krogh, Spaeth, & Lakhani, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Anonymous Peripheral Contributions on Open Source Software Development

Daniel¹,

Chung²,

Sharma³

2020

THCI

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Online peer production communities such as open source software (OSS) projects attract both identified and anonymous peripheral contributions (APC) (e.g., defect reports, feature requests, or forum posts). While we can attribute identified peripheral contributions (IPC) to specific individuals and OSS projects need them to succeed, one cannot trace back anonymous peripheral contributions (APC), and they can have both positive and negative ramifications for project development. Open platforms and managers face a challenging design choice in deciding whether to allow APC and for which tasks or what type of projects. We examine the impact that the ratio between APC and IPC has on OSS project performance. Our results suggest that the OSS projects perform the best when they contain a uniform anonymity level (i.e., they contain predominantly APC or predominantly IPC). However, our results also suggest that OSS projects have lower performance when the ratio between APC and IPC nears one (i.e., they contain close to the same number of APC and IPC). Furthermore, our results suggest that these results differ depending on the type of application that a project develops. Our study contributes to the ongoing debate about the implications of anonymity for online communities and informs managers about the effect that anonymous contributions have on their projects.

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Section: Volume 12 Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Impact of Anonymous Peripheral Contributions on Open Source Software Development

Daniel¹,

Chung²,

Sharma³

2020

THCI

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“…However, when given anonymity, not all individuals behave immorally; some tend to behave rather pro-socially [12]. In today's online environment, anonymity is inevitably required; thus, interest in various disciplines, including management information systems (MISs), psychology, and communication fields, is growing in terms of what controls people's socially friendly behavior, such as knowledge sharing in anonymous VCs [13][14][15]. Some scholars have begun to investigate the aspects related to self in controlling people to engage in pro-social behaviors, given online anonymity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some scholars have begun to investigate the aspects related to self in controlling people to engage in pro-social behaviors, given online anonymity. Although anonymity provides an environment that hides users' real identities, scholars assert that even in this anonymous environment, people's aspects of self can be important factors in behavioral control [12,14,16]. However, conclusions from existing studies on anonymity and self are inconsistent because they primarily emphasize only partial aspects of the self without considering the whole.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Moderators of the Influence of Enablers on Participation in Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Communities

Lee

2021

Sustainability

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Virtual communities (VCs) are emerging as a cyberspace where active knowledge exchange between people occurs without time or space constraints. For VCs to be sustainable, a major challenge is ensuring that members voluntarily contribute and share knowledge. Therefore, many VCs provide anonymity as a means of encouraging members to participate more in knowledge-sharing activities. Given the recent prevalence of anonymity-based VCs, this study aimed to examine what has a significant impact on human behavior, such as knowledge sharing in VCs. This study focused on governance-related factors of VCs and intrinsic motivation factors of users as participation-enabling factors in VCs. Particularly, this study analyzed the differences based on two types of self-awareness (public and private) and the level of anonymity. A web-based survey was conducted to collect data and the research model was tested using structural equation modeling. The results of this study show that members’ willingness to conform to group norms, which control and govern VCs, and intrinsic motivation have significant effects on knowledge sharing in VCs, and the influence can vary depending on the type of self-awareness and level of anonymity. This study provides implications for VC management strategy and the establishment of Internet culture for sharing high-quality knowledge.

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How question type influences knowledge withholding in social Q&A community

Xing

Wang

Tang

et al. 2023

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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Social question‐and‐answer (Q&A) communities are becoming increasingly important for knowledge acquisition. However, some users withhold knowledge, which can hinder the effectiveness of these platforms. Based on social exchange theory, the study investigates how different types of questions influence knowledge withholding, with question difficulty and user anonymity as boundary conditions. Two experiments were conducted to test hypotheses. Results indicate that informational questions are more likely to lead to knowledge withholding than conversational ones, as they elicit more fear of negative evaluation and fear of exploitation. The study also examines the interplay of question difficulty and user anonymity with question type. Overall, this study significantly extends the existing literature on counterproductive knowledge behavior by exploring the antecedents of knowledge withholding in social Q&A communities.

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Impact of anonymity on roles of personal and group identities in online communities

Cited by 37 publications

References 70 publications

The Impact of Anonymous Peripheral Contributions on Open Source Software Development

The Impact of Anonymous Peripheral Contributions on Open Source Software Development

Investigating Moderators of the Influence of Enablers on Participation in Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Communities

How question type influences knowledge withholding in social Q&A community

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