Explaining Persistent Ineffectiveness in Professional Online Communities: Multilevel Tensions and Misguided Coping Strategies

Online communities (OCs) have become an increasingly prevalent way for organizations to bring people together collaborate and create value. However, despite the abundance of extant literature, many studies still point lack long-term sustainability OCs. We contend that dormant or obsolete over time because manifestations ineffectiveness a state community hinders attainment individual collective desired outcomes. While in OCs is common, it less apparent why such persists. Two knowledge gaps are particularly significant here. First, while multilevel nature acknowledged, corresponding difficulties aligning interests behaviors often been neglected past studies. Second, rare longitudinal revealed members respond with various coping behaviors. impact these may not turn out as desired. Consequently, we investigate persistence from perspective effects, addressing following research question: How does persist online communities? Our critical realist case study offers three-step explanatory framework: (1) underlying tensions contribute usage (i.e., unable use OC effectively); (2) misguided ineffective adaptation cope being able (3) persists due interaction between ineffectiveness.