Toward a Conceptualizationof Online Community HealthDavid Wagner1, Alexander Richter2, Matthias Trier3,

Heinz-Theo Wagner1

1German Graduate School of Management and Law, 2University of Zurich,3Copenhagen Business School

AbstractIn this paper, we work toward aconstruct conceptualization of onlinecommunity health. Through a reviewof extant literature and dialogue withspecialists in the field, we develop amulti-dimensional construct of on-line community health, consisting ofseven elements.

MotivationOrganizations engage in a vari-ety of community settings thatspan departmental and organiza-tional boundaries, connecting di-verse stakeholders (Gulati et al.2012; Jarvenpaa and Lang 2011;Nambisan and Baron 2010).

As a result, new functions, such asdedicated community managementteams, are being established (Kaneet al. 2009; Parmentier and Gandia2013).

The basic objective of communitymanagement is to keep a commu-nity alive and thriving (Kraut andResnick, 2011).

The construct of online commu-nity health has been introducedto the academic literature (Wangand Lantzy 2011) and been adoptedby numerous practitioners (Lithium2012).

However, the initial proposal fromWang and Lantzy (2011) lacks a sol-id grounding in the literature and hasnot been empirically tested. A moresystematic, comprehensive concep-tualization thus seems warranted.

Research QuestionHow can the construct of online com-munity health be comprehensivelyconceptualized?

MethodThe first part of the research project,presented in this paper, consists ofa qualitative analysis of practition-er perceptions based on interviews(Kvale 2008).

In the subsequent stage, a quantita-tive study is to be conducted witha longitudinal data set of an onlinecommunity (Hogan 2008; Lazer etal. 2009).

The focal community is Mo-tor-Talk, Europe’s biggest automo-tive community (http://www.motor-talk.de/). Motor-Talk hosts morethan 600 brand and thematic fo-rums.

Out of the 600 forums, we collectedarchival data for 4 forums (2 brand/2thematic forums; 2 healthy/2 un-healthy forums), i.e., theoreticalsampling to maximize differences indata (Urquhart and Vaast 2012).

Dimensions

ContributionsThe paper is designed to meet the du-al objectives of engaged scholarship(Van de Ven 2007).

Theory: We follow the calls by fellowscholars to engage in theory devel-opment (Corley and Gioia 2011; Ma-jchrzak 2009; Urquhart and Vaast2012) by laying the foundation for anemerging construct (MacKenzie et al.2011), i.e., online community health(Wang and Lantzy 2011). In doing so,we attempt to derive a conceptual-ization that is beyond the reach ofcurrent performance variables usedin organizational or information sys-tems contexts.

Practice: The paper is targeted at aspecific group of practitioners, i.e.,social media and online communi-ty managers (Jaworski 2011; Kaneet al. 2009; Parmentier and Gandia2013). The construct of online com-munity health informs the evalua-tion of their communities and allowsthem to conduct regular health as-sessments that lead to actionable in-sights.

Key ReferencesKraut, R. E., and Resnick, P. 2011. Building Successful OnlineCommunities: Evidence-Based Social Design, Cambridge,MA: MIT Press.

MacKenzie, S. B., Podsakoff, P. M., and Podsakoff, N. P.2011. “Construct Measurement and Validation Procedures inMIS and Behavioral Research: Integrating New and ExistingTechniques,” MIS Quarterly (35:2), pp. 293–334.

Preece, J. 2001. “Sociability and Usability in Online Commu-nities: Determining and Measuring Success,” Behaviour &Information Technology (20:5), pp. 347–356.