The role of feedback in managing the Internet-based volunteer work force

摘要

The Internet-based volunteer work-force (IBVWF) is an emergent phenomenon facilitated by technology and human initiatives. As it is not centrally coordinated, the study proposes a general framework to understand the phenomenon and offers an empirical investigation of one component - the role of feedback - in producing and sustaining high-quality contributions from this workforce. It is found that question askers are more likely to sustain membership for longer in groups who implement systematic feedback systems and that with systematic feedback, volunteers producing higher quality contributions will have longer participation duration.