用户为何参与大众生产?——大众生产动机的实证研究

Why do Users Participate in Peer Production?——The Analysis of Empirical Researches in Peer Production Motivation

大众生产是指基于互联网进行的、网民自愿参与的、通过分散的个体协作进行知识生产的活动,已成为信息时代知识生产的重要方式之一。本文对比分析了国内外9篇探讨大众生产动机和参与行为关系的实证研究论文,以回答以下问题:不同学者对动机及参与行为等变量的建构是否相似?实证结果中,有哪些一致的和差异性的结论?造成差异的原因是什么?研究发现既有研究对因变量的建构一致性较高。但在解释变量上,不同学者建构的维度不仅不尽相同,甚至还存在矛盾冲突之处。取得基本一致性的研究结果是:自我效能感、利他主义、获取报酬、职业发展、享乐、社交和归属感、求知和提高技能动机对大众生产参与行为有显著正向影响。提高声誉、社会规范动机则无显著影响。对于互惠、理想目标和符合价值观动机所呈现的差异结果,研究者试图从样本选择、变量建构、研究对象等方面找到原因。整体而言,后续学者应注意构建更为严谨的解释变量,积极与同行进行对话,以促进学术知识的有效积累。

Peer production refers to the activity of knowledge production based on the Internet,with the voluntary participation of Internet users and through the collaboration of dispersed individuals,which has become one of the important ways of knowledge production in the information age.This paper makes a comparative analysis of 9 empirical research papers at home and abroad that discuss the relationship between peer production motivation and participation behavior,in order to answer the following questions:Are different scholars similar in the construction of variables such as Motivation and Participation Behavior?What are the consistent and different conclusions from the empirical results?Why there are different conclusions?It is found that the existing studies have a high consistency in the construction of dependent variables.But in terms of explanatory variables,the dimensions constructed by different scholars are not only different,but also contradictory and conflicting.Basically consistent results show that motivations like self-efficacy,altruism,earning remuneration,career development,enjoyment,sociability and belonging,knowledge seeking and skill improvement have significant positive effects on peer production participation behavior.However,the motivations of improving reputation and social norms are not significantly affected peer production behavior.As for the inconsistent results among different empirical studies,the researchers try to find the causes from the aspects of sample selection,variable construction and research objects.On the whole,subsequent scholars should pay attention to the construction of more rigorous explanatory variables,and actively engage in dialogue with peers,so as to promote the effective accumulation of academic knowledge.