Moser, C., P. Groenewegen & M. Huysman (2011)
Social Norms as Governance Mechanisms in Online Professional Communities. Presented at Academy of Management Meeting 2011: San Antonio, TX.
Research on online professional communities has increasingly gained prominence in management literature as organizations, entrepreneurs and professionals implement online platforms for knowledge exchange. These communities provide a work-related social platform for knowledge and expertise exchange to be attended by knowledge workers, such as the employees of organizations or entrepreneurs. One of their distinguishing features is the ability to self-organize, without using formal rules and procedures, or an explicit hierarchy. Instead, social norms act as alternative governance mechanisms. However, a thorough review of the literature on the role of social norms as governance mechanisms is still lacking. We provide an illustrative overview that answers the question how social norms govern organization within online professional communities. We derive three social norms – sociality (to be social to each other), support (to support each other), and sharing (to openly share knowledge with each other) – from research on online professional communities. We conclude by explaining how these three social norms influence distinct organizing processes within online professional communities.
