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Cited by 133Open Source Software InnovationsDigital Platforms and EconomicsKnowledge Management and Sharing

Platform Sponsor Investments and User Contributions in Knowledge Communities: The Role of Knowledge Seeding1

Huang, Peng, Tafti, Ali, Mithas, Sunil·2018·MIS Quarterly
DOI 10.25300/misq/2018/13490
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Abstract

How should digital platforms engage with and invest in their online communities to shape innovation and knowledge contributions from members in their platform ecosystems? This is an important question because user contributions are important drivers of technological progress and business value. We examine the effect of platform sponsors’ investments in online communities on user knowledge contributions, using fine-grained longitudinal data from a leading enterprise software vendor’s community network. We focus on the sponsor practice of knowledge seeding, in which its employees provide free technical support by answering questions posted in discussion forums. We define user knowledge contribution as peer-evaluated, quality-weighted solutions that community members provide to help resolve the questions their peers raise. We show that the platform sponsor’s investments in knowledge seeding have a positive, significant association with user knowledge contribution. We also find temporal and geographical variations in returns on the sponsor’s knowledge investments. Specifically, returns (i.e., amount of user contribution that is stimulated) decrease with the age of the community, consistent with the observation that the most active contributors are lead users who tend to join the community early. In addition, returns vary across different countries, such that greater returns are realized when the investment is made in countries with higher levels of information technology (IT) infrastructure, partly because country-level IT infrastructure may be associated with greater absorptive capacity of these countries. We discuss the implications for research and practice.

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  • Focal platform firms can use knowledge brokering, providing meta-knowledge via dedicated and semi-formalized interaction such as helpdesks and account managers for a subset of complementors.

    “Second, knowledge brokering provides meta-knowledge and takes place for a subset of complementors via dedicated and semi-formalized interaction, i.e., helpdesks and account managers.”

    From Digital platform ecosystems in flux: From proprietary digital platforms to wide-spanning ecosystems (2023) · cites this paper as Huang et al., 2018

  • Focal platform firms can use knowledge bridging, targeting an individual complementor with specific knowledge transfers such as one-to-one assistance and coaching.

    “Third, knowledge bridging targets an individual complementor with specific knowledge transfers, i.e., oneto-one assistance and coaching (Foerderer et al., 2019;Huang et al., 2018;Zhang et al., 2022).”

    From Digital platform ecosystems in flux: From proprietary digital platforms to wide-spanning ecosystems (2023) · cites this paper as Huang et al., 2018

  • Focal platform firms can use standardized broadcasting of information via transferable objects such as handbooks, guidelines, or wikis to exchange knowledge with complementors without direct interaction.

    “One possibility is the standardized broadcasting of information via transferable objects, i.e., handbooks or guidelines, or wikis.Complementors can access this knowledge without direct interaction with the focal platform firm.”

    From Digital platform ecosystems in flux: From proprietary digital platforms to wide-spanning ecosystems (2023) · cites this paper as Huang et al., 2018

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Related

Authors
Huang, P., Tafti, A., & Mithas, S.
Affiliations
  • University of Maryland, College Park (US)
  • University of Illinois Chicago (US)
ORCID
Venue
MIS Quarterly
Publisher
MIS Quarterly
Published
2018-03-01
Volume
42
Issue
1
Pages
213-240
ISSN
  • 0276-7783 (ISSN-L)
  • 2162-9730
DOI
10.25300/misq/2018/13490
OpenAlex
W2606838461
Cited by
133
References
103
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 1
FWCI
16.44
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
MIS Quarterly (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Open Source Software Innovations
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Digital Platforms and Economics
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Knowledge Management and Sharing
Keywords
online communities, knowledge communities, lead users, community age, IT infrastructure, absorptive capacity, forum, platform ecosystems

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