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GOR 2001 - content This is the http://kiwi.uni-psych.gwdg.de/congress/gor-2001/contrib/matzat-uwe/matzat-uwe Document. Main Author: Matzat, Uwe Co-Authors: ; Institution: Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS), Department of Sociology , University of Groningen Contribution Title: Social network effects as stimuli for active user participation in electronic groups? An empirical test of different theories with the help of academic Internet Discussion Groups. Authors Email: u.matzat@ppsw.rug.nl URLs: http://www2.ppsw.rug.nl/~matzat Abstract German (version: 25/06/2002 - 07:47, size: 0) English: Electronic groups like online-communities or mailing lists face the problem that during a discussion often only a very small minority of members actively participates. Passive members profit from the information exchange even if they withhold their own information contribution. For the management of an electronic discussion it is useful to know which incentives there are for active participation to ensure an efficient information transfer. Active user participation is the key to increase user satisfaction and member stability in different kinds of electronic groups. In the literature there are two answers to this question. One stream of research argues that the hope for a reciprocal exchange of information provides incentives for active participation (Thorn & Connolly, 1987, 1990). Other researchers claim that social networks that exist outside of the Internet could provide incentives for online-communication (Kollock, 1998; Wellman, 1996, 1997). However, at the moment it is unclear through which mechanisms social offline-networks could stimulate online-communication and whether such mechanisms have any impact at all. The paper tries to fill this gap. It specifies how social networks could stimulate active discussion participation. Moreover, it presents first results of empirical tests to find out whether social incentives stimulate active online-participation. The paper makes use of the data of the communication behaviour of researchers in about 50 academic Internet Discussion Groups, so-called mailing lists, combined with questionnaire data as examples for electronic groups which usually are regarded as information oriented. Article preliminary article (version: 25/06/2002 - 07:47, size: 512) view preliminary article - edit preliminary article - upload an image(for authors only)