The Never Ending Book: The role of external stimuli and peer feedback in user-generated content production

Maria Marchenko, Hendrik Sonnabend

Publication: Working/Discussion PaperWU Working Paper

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Abstract

This paper studies the determinants of the voluntary provision of user-generated (online) content. Using data from the largest fanfiction website, we find that writers respond differently to new original material: conditional on text length, writing times increase for the average writer and even more for the elite of prolific writer. We explain this finding with quality concerns. In addition, we find supportive evidence that community feedback encourages first-time contributors to continue publishing. For more established writers, we find that community feedback has a rather dampening effect on text lengths and writing times. Overall, these effects are more pronounced for high-quality community feedback ('reviews') compared to low-quality community feedback ('following', 'favoriting').
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationVienna
PublisherWU Vienna University of Economics and Business
Number of pages29
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2022

Publication series

SeriesDepartment of Economics Working Paper Series
Number320

WU Working Paper Series

  • Department of Economics Working Paper Series

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