| Abstract: |
Open production communities (OPCs) aim to channel voluntary users' creativity, energy, and knowledge to develop public content. Understanding user behavior is of utmost importance in this context, since such communities live off users' contributions and commitment. Still, designing and implementing apt incentives to sustain participation is deemed a challenging task due to the dynamic nature of online communities as a ubiquitous subset of socio-technical systems. In this paper, the existing body of research pertaining to user participation and motivation is reviewed and synthesized from two salient dimensions of user and community. Drawing on various theories, an integrated design framework is conceptualized which encompasses essential factors and causal relations that may influence user behavior. This framework provides insight into user behavior, implicit and explicit motivational factors, and the existing interdependencies between these constructs. The accumulation of the current dispersed knowledge in this field of study helps community designers and operators to have a holistic view over the influential factors on user behavior in online communities and introduce necessary measures and features accordingly. |
