Abstract
A growing trend within the literature on value creation is the introduction of private-collective knowledge communities, which create opportunities for organizations to leverage knowledge. In these communities, participants privately invest in a project’s success by freely revealing and contributing their personal resources such as expertise and time to a public good. Firms then use these public goods as the basis for their own product offering. In this paper, we focus on describing the nature of the relationships that exist within private-collective knowledge communities and subsequently develop a framework for how researchers and practitioners can understand the organization-user dynamics found within these communities. As such, our research questions are as follows: What factors impact the organization-user dynamics in private-collective knowledge communities and how do these factors affect the nature of the relationships within these communities? We conclude with initial results supporting our model and discuss future steps, limitations, and contributions.
Recommended Citation
Gangi, Paul Di; Teigland, Robin; Flaten, Bjorn-Tore; and Giovacchini, Elia, "Are we in this together? Exploring private-collective knowledge communities" (2011). ICIS 2011 Proceedings. 30.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2011/proceedings/onlinecommunity/30
Are we in this together? Exploring private-collective knowledge communities
A growing trend within the literature on value creation is the introduction of private-collective knowledge communities, which create opportunities for organizations to leverage knowledge. In these communities, participants privately invest in a project’s success by freely revealing and contributing their personal resources such as expertise and time to a public good. Firms then use these public goods as the basis for their own product offering. In this paper, we focus on describing the nature of the relationships that exist within private-collective knowledge communities and subsequently develop a framework for how researchers and practitioners can understand the organization-user dynamics found within these communities. As such, our research questions are as follows: What factors impact the organization-user dynamics in private-collective knowledge communities and how do these factors affect the nature of the relationships within these communities? We conclude with initial results supporting our model and discuss future steps, limitations, and contributions.