Through a glass darkly: information technology design, identity verification, and knowledge contribution in online communities.

A variety of information technology (IT) artifacts, such as those supporting reputation management and digital archives of past interactions, are commonly deployed to support online communities. Despite their ubiquity, theoretical and empirical research investigating the impact of such IT-based features on online community communication and interaction is limited. Drawing on the social psychology literature, we describe an identity-based view to understand how the use of IT-based features in online communities is associated with online knowledge contribution. Specifically, the use of four categories of IT artifacts--those supporting virtual co-presence, persistent labeling, self-presentation, and deep profiling--is proposed to enhance perceived identity verification, which thereafter promotes satisfaction and knowledge contribution. To test the theoretical model, we surveyed more than 650 members of two online communities. In addition to the positive effects of community IT artifacts on perceived identity verification, we also find that perceived identity verification is strongly linked to member satisfaction and knowledge contribution. This paper offers a new perspective on the mechanisms through which IT features facilitate computer-mediated knowledge sharing, and it yields important implications for the design of the supporting IT infrastructure.

Key words: computer-mediated communication and collaboration; perceived identity verification; online communities; design of IT infrastructure; questionnaire surveys

1. Introduction

New organizational forms spawned by developments in information technologies (IT) continue to intrigue researchers and practitioners. The focus of this paper is on such a form--an online community--that describes a group of people who communicate and interact, develop relationships, and collectively and individually seek to attain some goals in an IT-supported virtual space (Lee et al. 2002). Paradoxically, although the past few years have witnessed a significant growth in the number of online communities, (1) empirical studies reveal that very few are successful at retaining their members and motivating member knowledge contribution. For example, the vast majority (91.2%) of communities on MSN (www.msn.com) had fewer than 25 members, and the communities averaged between 1 and 20 posts (Farmham 2002). Communities can be a significant source of value for participants and, in the case of sponsored communities, for the subsidizing firms. However, to the extent that such value can only be realized when ongoing participation is motivated and appropriately supported (Butler 2001, Finholt and Sproull 1990), a natural question that arises then is, how can voluntary knowledge contribution be promoted between strangers interacting through technology-mediated communication?

Mediation by technology creates several challenges for effective social interaction. It is widely acknowledged that mediated communication suffers from social cue deficiencies (Rice 1984, Short et al. 1976, Sproull and Kiesler 1986) because the transmission of important contextual cues such as body language and physical surroundings cannot easily and conveniently be realized through computer channels. In the disembodied virtual environment, a lack of synchronicity and immediacy can attenuate the effect of social norms on behavior and result in more social loafing (Latane 1981). Furthermore, communication in an online community typically involves a large number of participants with different social backgrounds and perspectives. The establishment of mutual understanding to comprehend conversations and knowledge contribution is inevitably more difficult than face-to-face communication in a small group (Chidambaram and Tung 2005, Whittaker et al. 1998). Finally, redundancy and communication overload (Kraut and Attewell 1997) can also reduce participation in the community and discourage knowledge sharing.

In spite of these challenges, evidence suggests that individuals do engage in prosocial behaviors such as knowledge contribution in online communities (e.g., Hertel et al. 2003). In this paper, our goal is to examine the role of the technology infrastructure of an online community in facilitating knowledge contribution. The literature on online knowledge sharing posits that a variety of drivers motivate this behavior: the anticipation of extrinsic benefits (economic rewards), intrinsic benefits (e.g., sense of self-worth, social norms, and social affiliation) (Bock et al. 2005, Kankanhalli et al. 2005), and social capital (Chiu et al. 2006, Wasko and Faraj 2005). We theorize that a key driver of knowledge contribution behavior in an online community is the accurate communication and verification of identity that can, in turn, yield extrinsic benefits such as recognition, and intrinsic benefits such as an amplified sense of self-worth. Individuals participating in both offline and online social interaction seek to be understood as the person they believe themselves to be (Donath 1999, Swann 1983). Indeed, the importance of identity in a technology-mediated context has been suggested by others (e.g., Berman and Bruckman 2001, Turkle 1995) and is succinctly summarized by Donath (1999) in her study of Usenet newsgroups: "For most participants, identity--both the establishment of their own reputation and the recognition of others--plays a vital role" (p. 30). We argue that the extent to which individuals believe they are able to successfully communicate their online identity (i.e., who he or she is in an online community), relates--both directly and through mediation by satisfaction--to knowledge contribution in the community.

The role of technology is central to our theorizing. Because technology is the foundation and medium through which community members interact, it is one of the key determinants of the dynamics of the community. While Walther's influential research suggests that communicators can develop social relationships despite constraints imposed by lean media (Walther 1992, Walther et al. 2001), a significant number of studies also suggest that technologies and social systems evolve together, and that technologies may lead to different outcomes with regard to member behavior and ongoing community activities (e.g., Fulk 1993, Poole and DeSanctis 1990, Walther et al. 2001, Yates and Orlikowski 1992). For example, the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) literature points out that software built to support real-time conversation (e.g., instant messaging), social feedback (reputation systems), and social networks allows users to create new social relationships (Boyd 2003). However, much of this work investigating community design does not provide a theoretical explanation for these effects, although community infrastructures with increasingly sophisticated IT are being put in place. To bridge the gap between online community research and practice, we elaborate the mechanisms through which community features such as a rating system and user profiles influence online community members' knowledge-sharing behavior. Specifically, we investigate how perceived identity verification is enabled by the use of IT in an online community.