Earticle

초록

영어

In a virtual community, people can create cyber identities that differ from their actual identity. Having alternative identities may cause negative and positive effects in a virtual community. Does false identity undermine the qualitative growth of a virtual community by reducing members’ accountability? Or does it stimulate their contribution behavior by ensuring freedom of speech? Considering the distinct property of a virtual community in which people easily change their identity at low cost, understanding the effects of multi-identity is imperative. To answer the raised questions, we adopt a perspective from social psychology theory rooted in the self-concept. We theoretically link the self-discrepancy between actual identity and cyber identity to the sense of virtual community, perceived privacy rights, and quality of contribution. The results of the analysis with 244 surveyed data show that self-discrepancy negatively influences immersion, recovery, autonomy and catharsis, resulting in reduced contribution quality in virtual communities.

목차

Abstract
 Introduction
 Theoretical Development
 Research Model and Hypotheses
 Method
 Results
 Discussion, Implications, and Limitations
 Conclusions
 References

저자

• Ayoung Suh [ College of Business Administration, Ewha Womans University ]
• Kyung-shik Shin [ College of Business Administration, Ewha Womans University ]
• Jumin Lee [ Kyung Hee Cyber University ]

참고문헌