Fatores individuais influenciadores do esforço e das contribuições na Wikipédia

Abstract

The objective of this work is to analyze to what extent attitude, self-efficacy and altruism influence the effort and the active contributions in Wikipedia. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior and knowledge of the literature of online communities as basis, a new conceptual model was proposed. Such a model differs from the models previously proposed by considering altruism in its various facets, by identification, reciprocity and reputation, and by treating effort as antecedent of performance results, in the case measured in terms of active contributions, in agreement with already consolidated organizational literature. To achieve the specific objectives of the study, Wikipedia was analyzed through a multimethod approach with application of questionnaires for members and documentary research to obtain secondary data. After the exclusion of outliers, the final sample was 212 participants. An exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were performed, which resulted in obtaining a model with satisfactory fit indices. The results indicate that effort influences the active contributions; Attitude, altruism by reputation and altruism by identification influence effort; None of the proposed factors are directly related to active contributions; And experience directly influences self-efficacy while positively moderating the relationship between effort and active contributions. Finally, the implications of such discoveries are presented for literature and for Wikipedia, and a research agenda for future studies is suggested.