@article{2019:benoit:profession,
title = {Professionalism Kills the Trading Star: Explaining Member Participation in Trading Communities},
year = {2019},
note = {Trading communities provide non-commercial members with an online
platform on which to exchange goods. Its success depends on member
participation; however, little is known about its drivers. Based on
literature we identify five drivers. To capture their impact over
time,we test a latent growth curve model with longitudinal data,
comparing the effects at an initial point of time with their impact on
the growth of member participation over three subsequent periods. The
results show that providers’ responsiveness and community
identification have a positive effect on the initial level, but not on
growth. Members’ enjoyment has no level effect, but a growth effect.
Only role clarity has an impact on level and growth. Interestingly,
co-members’ cooperation weakens member participation, which leads us
to conclude that too much cooperation – which appears as
professionalism in a trading community – ‘kills’ member
participation. We conclude with theoretical and managerial
implications.},
journal = {SMR - Journal of Service Management Research},
pages = {54--65},
author = {Benoit, Sabine and Hogreve, Jens and Sichtmann, Christina and Bilstein, Nicola},
volume = {3},
number = {2}
}