Self-Organisation of Interest Communities. An Evolutionary Approach

Sylvain Dejean

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Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to study the role of individual on the self-organizing process of interest-based community. Contrary to the classical conclusions in which the presence of free-riding behaviour damages the sustainability of online community, our findings show that the heterogeneity of individual contributions favour the self-organization of interest-based communities. We also consider two designed strategies which link the ability to provide information for the community and the perceived switching costs. The results show that both positive and negative correlations between contributions and switching costs may lead to the emergence of self-organized community of interest. If agents are (not) sensitive to the diversity of information, a positive (negative) correlation between contributions and switching costs is likely to produce self-organization. RÉSUMÉ. L'objectif de cet article est d'étudier le rôle des contributions individuelles sur les processus d'auto-organisation des communautés d'intérêt en ligne. Contrairement aux conclusions traditionnelles qui montrent que le comportement de passager clandestin est nuisible aux succès des communautés en ligne, nos conclusions montrent que l'hétérogénéité des contributions individuelles favorise l'auto-organisation de ces communautés. Nous considérons également deux stratégies qui lient la capacité des contributeurs à produire de l'information et les coûts de changement perçus lors d'un déplacement vers une autre communauté. Les résultats montrent que des corrélations positives et négatives entre contributions et coûts de changement peuvent toutes les deux conduire à l'auto-organisation. Si les agents sont (ne sont pas) sensibles à la diversité informationnelle, une corrélation positive (négative) entre contributions et coûts de changement conduit à l'auto-organisation des préférences au sein des communautés.

Keywords: self-organization; interest communities; evolutionary (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-11-01
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Published in European Journal of Economic and Social Systems, 2010, 23 (2), pp.7-31

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00965939

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