Leading Collaboration in Online Communities

Author List: Faraj, Samer; Kudaravalli, Srinivas; Wasko, Molly;
MIS Quarterly, 2015, Volume 39, Issue 2, Page 393-412.
Despite the growing importance of online communities in creating knowledge and facilitating collaboration, there has been limited research examining the role of leaders in such settings. In this paper, we propose a framework that integrates behavioral and structural approaches to explore the antecedents of leadership in online communities focused on knowledge work. Specifically, we propose that sociability and knowledge contribution behaviors as well as structural social capital lead to being identified as a leader by members of the online community. We test this framework using social network, survey, and message-level content analysis data collected from three different online communities focused on technical topics. The results from our zero inflated negative binomial models, with 6,709 messages from 976 individuals, provide strong support for the framework that is developed in this study. Our study contributes to both theory and practice by identifying the behavioral and structural antecedents of leadership in online communities.
Keywords: Online leadership; leader behaviors; online communities; structural social capital; knowledge collaboration; network analysis
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#45 0.231 community communities online members participants wikipedia social member knowledge content discussion collaboration attachment communication law virtual membership structures forms activities
#108 0.197 model research data results study using theoretical influence findings theory support implications test collected tested based empirical empirically context paper
#162 0.136 structural modeling scale equation implications economies large future framework perspective propose broad scope resulting identified leading analyzed second interviews analysis
#220 0.083 research study different context findings types prior results focused studies empirical examine work previous little knowledge sources implications specifically provide
#234 0.083 social networks influence presence interactions network media networking diffusion implications individuals people results exchange paper sites evidence self-disclosure important examine
#2 0.082 leadership leaders effective leader roles authority assume slow responsibility structure recognize responsibilities look size inevitable attain trend held articulate dominate
#245 0.074 knowledge sharing contribution practice electronic expertise individuals repositories management technical repository knowledge-sharing shared contributors novelty features peripheral share benefit seekers
#75 0.072 behavior behaviors behavioral study individuals affect model outcomes psychological individual responses negative influence explain hypotheses expected theories consequences impact theory