Keep them alive! Design and Evaluation of the "Community Fostering Reference Model"
Journal
Business & information systems engineering (BISE)
ISSN
2363-7005
ISSN-Digital
1867-0202
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2017-10-18
Author(s)
Research Team
IWI6
Abstract
Firms host online communities for commercial purposes, for example in order to integrate customers into ideation for new product development. The success of these firm-hosted online communities depends entirely on the cooperation of a high number of customers that constantly produce valuable knowledge for firms. However, in practice, the majority of successfully implemented communities
suffers from stagnation and even a decrease of member activities over time. Literature provides numerous guidelines on how to build and launch these online communities. While these models describe the initial steps of acquiring and activating a community base from scratch very well and explicitly, they neglect continuous member activation and acquistion after a successful launch. Against this background, the authors propose the Community
Fostering Reference Model (CoFoRM), which represents a set of general procedures and instruments to continuously foster member activity. In this paper, the authors present the theory-driven design as well as the evaluation of the CoFoRM in a practical use setting. The evaluation results reveal that the CoFoRM represents a valuable instrument in the daily working routine of community managers, since it efficiently helps activating community members especially in the late phases of a community’s lifecycle.
suffers from stagnation and even a decrease of member activities over time. Literature provides numerous guidelines on how to build and launch these online communities. While these models describe the initial steps of acquiring and activating a community base from scratch very well and explicitly, they neglect continuous member activation and acquistion after a successful launch. Against this background, the authors propose the Community
Fostering Reference Model (CoFoRM), which represents a set of general procedures and instruments to continuously foster member activity. In this paper, the authors present the theory-driven design as well as the evaluation of the CoFoRM in a practical use setting. The evaluation results reveal that the CoFoRM represents a valuable instrument in the daily working routine of community managers, since it efficiently helps activating community members especially in the late phases of a community’s lifecycle.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Springer Gabler
Publisher place
Wiesbaden
Volume
60
Number
6
Start page
493
End page
511
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
249167
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
JML_685.pdf
Size
1.28 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9a01da0d18e368037c6808fc4c92880b