Membership size, communication activity, and sustainability: A resource-based model of online social structures
Membership size, communication activity, and sustainability: A resource-based model of online social structures
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DOI：
10.1287/isre.12.4.346.9703
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发表时间：
2001-12-01
影响因子：
4.9
通讯作者：
Butler, BS
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Butler, BS
随着电信网络变得越来越普遍，人们对在线社会结构发展背后的因素越来越感兴趣。有人提出，这些结构是新的组织形式，不像传统的社会结构那样受到同样的约束。然而，从轶事证据和案例研究来看，很难评估在线社会结构是否受到与传统社会结构相同的问题的影响。借鉴以往对传统社会结构的研究和对基于互联网的群体样本纵向数据的实证分析，本探索性工作考虑了规模和交流活动在可持续在线社会结构中的作用。提出了一种基于资源的可持续社会结构理论。成员贡献时间、精力和其他资源，使社会结构为个人提供利益。这些利益包括信息、影响力和社会支持，是社会结构吸引和留住成员的基础。该模型侧重于将成员规模作为资源可用性的组成部分和将通信活动作为在线社会结构可持续性的利益提供的一个方面联系起来的对立力量系统。对基于电子邮件的互联网社会结构（listservs）随机样本数据的分析表明，通信活动和规模对结构的可持续性既有积极的影响，也有消极的影响。这些结果表明，虽然网络通信技术的使用可能会改变通信形式，但平衡成员规模和通信活动的相反影响，以保持资源可用性并为现有成员提供利益，仍然是可持续在线社会结构发展的根本问题。
As telecommunication networks become more common, there is an increasing interest in the factors underlying the development of online social structures. It has been proposed that these structures are new forms of organizing which are not subject to the same constraints as traditional social structures. However, from anecdotal evidence and case studies it is difficult to evaluate whether online social structures are subject to the same problems as traditional social structures. Drawing from prior studies of traditional social structures and empirical analyses of longitudinal data from a sample of Internet-based groups, this exploratory work considers the role of size and communication activity in sustainable online social structures.A resource-based theory of sustainable social structures is presented. Members contribute time, energy, and other resources, enabling a social structure to provide benefits for individuals. These benefits, which include information, influence, and social support, are the basis for a social structure's ability to attract and retain members. This model focuses on the system of opposing forces that link membership size as a component of resource availability and communication activity as an aspect of benefit provision to the sustainability of an online social structure. Analyses of data from a random sample of e-mail-based Internet social structures (listservs) indicate that communication activity and size have both positive and negative effects on a structure's sustainability. These results suggest that while the use of networked communication technologies may alter the form of communication, balancing the opposing impacts of membership size and communication activity in order to maintain resource availability and provide benefits for current members remains a fundamental problem underlying the development of sustainable online social structures.