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http://dx.doi.org/10.7838/jsebs.2015.20.1.217

The Effect of Anonymity on Virtual Team Performance in Online Communities  

Lee, Un-Kon (College of Economics and Business Administration, The University of Suwon)
Lee, Aeri (Department of Management Information Systems, Yuhan University)
Kim, Kyong Kyu (Graduate School of Information, Yonsei University)
Publication Information
The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies / v.20, no.1, 2015 , pp. 217-241 More about this Journal
Abstract
One of the challenges in online community management is what level of perceived anonymity can be granted to encourage active participation from members while discouraging unhealthy activities. Few studies developed a scheme of anonymity and investigated how different levels of anonymity influence community activities. This study develops a classification scheme of anonymity encompassing the following three different levels : (1) real name(no anonymity), (2) nickname (partial anonymity), and (3) random assignment of a temporal ID (complete anonymity). Then, it examines how different levels of anonymity influence trust and perceived risk, which in turn affect virtual team performance. A series of laboratory experiments were performed, manipulating the levels of anonymity, in the context of well-structured communities that allow prior interactions among community members. The data was collected from 364 laboratory participants and analyzed using ANOVA and PLS. The results indicate that the difference of anonymity between (2) and (3) had not be significant and the only (1) could not guarantee the anonymity. The impact of anonymity on trust and perceived risk could not be significant in this situation. These findings could contribute to make more beneficial member identification strategies in online community practice.
Keywords
Anonymity; Virtual Team Performance; Online Community;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
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