Building Status in an Online Community

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Smirnova, Inna; Reitzig, Markus; Sorenson, Olav
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of Vienna; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2021.1559
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 2519-2540
• 关键词: status attainment; action ambiguity; ONLINE COMMUNITIES; stack overflow; experiment

摘要

We argue that the actions for which actors receive recognition vary as they move up the hierarchy. When actors first enter a community, the community rewards them for their easier-to-evaluate contributions to the community. Eventually, however, as these actors rise in status, further increases in stature come increasingly from engaging in actions that aremore difficult to evaluate or even impossible to judge. These dynamics produce a positive feedback loop, in which those who have already been accorded some stature garner even greater status through quality-ambiguous actions. We present evidence from Stack Overflow, an online community, and from two online experiments consistent with these expected patterns.