%0 Journal Article %1 ls_leimeister %A Bretschneider, Ulrich %A Hartmann, Marco %A Leimeister, Jan Marco %D 2017 %J Business Information System & Engineering (BISE) %K itegpub journal pub_jml pub_mha pub_ubr %N 6 %P 493-511 %R 10.1007/s12599-017-0500-6 %T Keep them alive! Design and Evaluation of the "Community Fostering Reference Model" %U http://pubs.wi-kassel.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/JML_685.pdf %V 60 %X Firms host online communities for commercial purposes, for example in order to integrate customers into ideation for new product development. The success of these firm-hosted online communities depends entirely on the cooperation of a high number of customers that constantly produce valuable knowledge for firms. However, in practice, the majority of successfully implemented communities suffers from stagnation and even a decrease of member activities over time. Literature provides numerous guidelines on how to build and launch these online communities. While these models describe the initial steps of acquiring and activating a community base from scratch very well and explicitly, they neglect continuous member activation and acquistion after a successful launch. Against this background, the authors propose the Community Fostering Reference Model (CoFoRM), which represents a set of general procedures and instruments to continuously foster member activity. In this paper, the authors present the theory-driven design as well as the evaluation of the CoFoRM in a practical use setting. The evaluation results reveal that the CoFoRM represents a valuable instrument in the daily working routine of community managers, since it efficiently helps activating community members especially in the late phases of a community’s lifecycle.

@article{ls_leimeister, abstract = {Firms host online communities for commercial purposes, for example in order to integrate customers into ideation for new product development. The success of these firm-hosted online communities depends entirely on the cooperation of a high number of customers that constantly produce valuable knowledge for firms. However, in practice, the majority of successfully implemented communities suffers from stagnation and even a decrease of member activities over time. Literature provides numerous guidelines on how to build and launch these online communities. While these models describe the initial steps of acquiring and activating a community base from scratch very well and explicitly, they neglect continuous member activation and acquistion after a successful launch. Against this background, the authors propose the Community Fostering Reference Model (CoFoRM), which represents a set of general procedures and instruments to continuously foster member activity. In this paper, the authors present the theory-driven design as well as the evaluation of the CoFoRM in a practical use setting. The evaluation results reveal that the CoFoRM represents a valuable instrument in the daily working routine of community managers, since it efficiently helps activating community members especially in the late phases of a community’s lifecycle.}, added-at = {2016-09-07T17:55:14.000+0200}, author = {Bretschneider, Ulrich and Hartmann, Marco and Leimeister, Jan Marco}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/236e9b8352e7f4eba6bbafc56b1426e13/ls_leimeister}, doi = {10.1007/s12599-017-0500-6}, interhash = {eaa43920d6f59fbbb27130cffc1af3cf}, intrahash = {36e9b8352e7f4eba6bbafc56b1426e13}, issn = {2363-7005}, journal = {Business Information System & Engineering (BISE)}, keywords = {itegpub journal pub_jml pub_mha pub_ubr}, language = {English}, number = 6, pages = {493-511}, timestamp = {2023-09-20T12:44:18.000+0200}, title = {Keep them alive! Design and Evaluation of the "Community Fostering Reference Model"}, url = {http://pubs.wi-kassel.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/JML_685.pdf}, volume = 60, year = 2017 }