Community Photo Sharing: Motivational and Structural Antecedents

In recent years there has seen a substantial growth of social computing. Content contribution from individual members is critical to the viability of social computing communities, and therefore it is important to understand what drives users to share content with others in such settings. We extend previous literature on user contribution by studying the factors that are associated with users’ photo sharing in a social computing community. We draw on motivation theories as well as on network structural properties analysis, two critical concepts in predicting user behavior in communities. Our results indicate that users with higher commitment to the community and greater structural embeddedness tend to share more, whereas enjoyment shows no effect on the level of sharing. Counter to our expectations, the motivation of self-development was negatively related to photo sharing. Directions for further development of this research, as well as implications for theory and practice are discussed.