Network Cooperation and Incentives within Online Communities

Pénard, Thierry; Dang Nguyen, Godefroy

doi:10.2139/ssrn.953072

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Network Cooperation and Incentives within Online Communities

20 Pages Posted: 22 Dec 2006

See all articles by Thierry Pénard

Thierry Pénard

Université de Rennes 1 - Faculte de Sciences Economiques; Armorican Mole for Research on the Information Society and Uses of the Internet; Centre de Recherche en Économie et Management (CREM)

The aim of this article is to understand the rationale of cooperation at work within online sharing communities. How can the extent of cooperative interactions between anonymous and spatially-dispersed Internet users be explained? We have built a game-theoretic framework to study the exchange of services within a virtual community, such as a peer-to-peer network. It will be shown that the coexistence of contributors and free-riders often yields a stable situation. The optimal incentive mechanisms for stimulating contributions from community members will also be examined.

Keywords: Online communities, Network, Internet, Peer-to-peer, Cooperation

JEL Classification: L86

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Pénard, Thierry and Dang Nguyen, Godefroy, Network Cooperation and Incentives within Online Communities (September 1, 2006). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=953072 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.953072