Abstract
Online Q&A communities rely on mutual help, yet users vary in whether they return the help they receive. To investigate this phenomenon, this study draws on equity theory to distinguish between two dimensions of help received in virtual communities: volume and effort. Using a large-scale longitudinal dataset from Stack Overflow, this study employs fixed-effects models to test the hypotheses. The results show that receiving high-effort help is significantly more effective in motivating subsequent knowledge contributions than receiving a larger volume of help. Moreover, prior help provision moderates these effects: prior contributions amplify the negative impact of receiving a large volume of help while attenuating the positive impact of receiving high-effort help. This study offers new insights into current research by revealing the double-edged nature of received help in shaping voluntary knowledge sharing in online Q&A communities. These insights are also timely in the era of generative AI, shedding light on how users respond to received help in virtual communities.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2026 |
Keywords
- Equity Theory
- Help Received Effort
- Help Received Volume
- Online Q&A Communities
- Prior Help Provision
- Voluntary Knowledge Sharing
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Science Applications
- Computer Networks and Communications
- Strategy and Management
- Marketing
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