Users´ Influence on the Success of Online Communities

This paper examines how different facets of favorable user behavior drive the success of an online community by using a unique data set with surveys from 1,389 participants from the German branch of an international operating massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) community and enhancing it with the game´s log files. We argue that success of the community depends on how these users contribute to the underlying success dimensions content, revenue, loyalty and growth. At this, we identify the importance and impact of overlapping online and offline social networks. Moreover, we find that satisfaction with the platform and commitment to the community have a major influence on our success variables. Interestingly, the influence of commitment on favorable user behavior is not moderated by membership tenure.