Participation and Control in Online Communities: Comparing Three Cases of User Involvement in Service Networks

This paper aims at investigating three different scenarios of user involvement in service networks. In particular, we chose a heterogeneous network of small and medium sized enterprises (SME), where firms form the network and users are the employees of those firms, a health care network, where hospitals and physicians are institutional members of the network and the role of the “user” is assumed by patients, and an open source service network (OSSN), where open source firms are institutional members of the network, and both employees of those firms as well as free developers may be considered “users.” Based upon qualitative interviews we find transparency and perceptions of regulations and control to be important for institutional actors in service networks. As such, this study provides recommendations to service network managers and service network members that intend to make use of user’s knowledge by means of collaborative tools and online platforms.