Monetary Incentives and Content Contribution in Social Media: The Case of Online Crowd Sourced Equity Research

Description

Few empirical studies have directly assessed the economic consequences of providingmonetary incentives to content contributors in online communities. The lack of researchon monetary incentives may be partly due to the unavailability of data on who receivesmoney and how receivers behave before and after being exposed to the monetaryincentive, as well as the absence of an objective measure on the quality of content insocial media. Using data from Seeking Alpha (SA), one of the largest online crowdsourced equity research communities for investors, we overcome the hurdles mentionedabove. The results of this proposed study could reveal how monetary incentives affectthe quantity and quality of online content contribution. This study directly informs thedecision making of online communities in terms of whether monetary incentives shouldbe used to encourage content contribution and how to better allocate a limited budget toachieve diversity in content and maximize the benefits of monetary incentives.