To Share or Not to Share? - An Empirical Analysis on User Decisions in Online Sharing Communities

Abstract:     
Recently, user-oriented online sharing communities (e.g., YouTube, Flickr) have seen explosive growth. In these communities, social norms are relatively weak compared to many message-based online communities, as users' attention is on content and communication among them is limited. Under this setting, it is crucial to understand the factors that affect a user's choice to share. We propose a three-factor decision framework to study users' choice of sharing, which we then empirically test using a five-year dataset collected in an IRC music sharing community. We find that a user is more likely to continue sharing if he receives more benefit directly from the community; if he has more social connections; and if he has a high recognized value to the community. We also test the validity of the results by controlling the impacts of aggregated community activities, individual characteristics, users' life span, and legal events.

Keywords: Online sharing community, implicit community, IRC, voluntary contribution, music sharing

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