Motivating contributions to Commute Greener! Nature of motivation and motivation loss

Abstract

This thesis is focused on the problem of users’ participation and contributions within Commute\nGreener - a developing informal virtual organization. It aims to investigate the nature of\nmotivation to participate and contribute in order to understand why does the motivation loss\noccur and suggest how it can be avoided.\nThe investigation is supported by theoretical model that states that users’ current motivation to\nparticipate and contribute within informal virtual organization is influenced by (1) motives\nincluding (a) initial motivation and (b) costs and benefits and (2) tools including (a) design of\ntechnical features and (b) communication of specific influential information.\nThe data collection and data analysis are realized through quantitative research methods: a\nrepresentative sample of Commute Greener users is involved in a close-ended Web-based\nsurvey; statistical analysis of data is then conducted with the help of SPSS 13.1.\nAmong the most important findings we state that:\nFirst, higher level of motivation to use Commute Greener is predicted by lower costs from using\nit, which means that: to actually make registered users of Commute Greener use it, the\ndevelopers should first of all improve the usability and lower the costs. Second, although\nCommute Greener provides social networking and community services, i.e. a communicative\nsystem for a virtual organization, there is a lack of communicational content circulating within it,\nwhich means that a lot of motivating mechanisms (such as social learning, self-efficacy, etc.)\ncannot be implemented. Considering the fact that 23% of registered Commute Greener users\nnever use online social communities or networks, we suggest that Commute Greener should\ndevelop both as a relatively independent application and as a virtual organization.

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