Professionalism Kills the Trading Star: Explaining Member Participation in Trading Communities

Benoit, Sabine; Hogreve, Jens; Sichtmann, Christina; Bilstein, Nicola (2019). Professionalism Kills the Trading Star: Explaining Member Participation in Trading Communities Journal of Service Management Research, 3(2), pp. 54-65. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft 10.15358/2511-8676-2019-2-54

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Trading communities provide non-commercialmembers with an online platform on which to ex-change goods. Its success depends on member par-ticipation; however, little is known about its drivers.Based on literature we identify five drivers. To cap-turetheirimpactovertime,wetestalatentgrowthcurve model with longitudinal data, comparing theeffects at an initial point of time with their impacton the growth of member participation over threesubsequent periods. The results show that provid-ers’ responsiveness and community identificationhave a positive effect on the initial level, but not ongrowth. Members’ enjoyment has no level effect,but a growth effect. Only role clarity has an impacton level and growth. Interestingly, co-members’ co-operation weakens member participation, whichleads us to conclude that too much cooperation –which appears as professionalism in a trading com-munity – ‘kills’ member participation. We concludewith theoretical and managerial implications.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	Business School > Institute for Applied Data Science & Finance Business School
Name:	Benoit, Sabine; Hogreve, Jens; Sichtmann, Christina0000-0001-6101-9467 and Bilstein, Nicola
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
ISSN:	2511-8676
Publisher:	Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft
Language:	English
Submitter:	Christina Sichtmann
Date Deposited:	11 Jul 2023 09:39
Last Modified:	11 Jul 2023 09:39
Publisher DOI:	10.15358/2511-8676-2019-2-54
Uncontrolled Keywords:	IB, BWL
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.18178
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/18178