Creating Value in Online Communities: The Sociomaterial Configuring of Strategy, Platform, and Stakeholder Engagement

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Barrett, Michael; Oborn, Eivor; Orlikowski, Wanda
• 署名单位: University of Cambridge; University of Warwick; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 刊物名称: INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7047
• DOI: 10.1287/isre.2016.0648
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 704-723
• 关键词: social media; knowledge contribution; service innovation; DOMINANT LOGIC; software; ORGANIZATIONS; capabilities; architecture; governance; cocreation

摘要

How is value created in an online community (OC) over time? We explored this question through a longitudinal field study of an OC in the healthcare arena. We found that multiple kinds of value were produced and changed over time as different participants engaged with the OC and its evolving technology in various ways. To explain our findings, we theorize OC value as performed through the ongoing sociomaterial configuring of strategies, digital platforms, and stakeholder engagement. We develop a process perspective to explain these dynamics and identify multiple different kinds of value being created by an OC over time: financial, epistemic, ethical, service, reputational, and platform. Our research points to the importance of expanding the notion of OC users to encompass a broader understanding of stakeholders. It further suggests that creating OC value increasingly requires going beyond a dyadic relationship between the OC and the firm to encompassing a more complex relationship involving a wider ecosystem of stakeholders.