Leadership Behavior in Virtual Communities

The success of open source software like Apache or Linux not only attracts practitioners of IS to look more thoroughly on the development processes of these communities but also attracts researchers to take a closer look on how these communities work. At first glance open source software development is seemingly chaotic and anarchistic (Kuwabara, 2000). However, successful open source software communities like Apache or Linux do have strong leadership, management, and governance structures (apache.org, 2003; Bretthauer, 2002; Fielding, 1999). In these communities single individuals or a group of participants exercise leadership functions and are in charge of the project direction and survival. Currently, a strong focus of the open source software (OSS) literature is especially on the motivation of participants who spend a lot of time and effort without getting a direct monetary compensation. So far, only little is known about how these communities are organized, managed, and governed. This paper will concentrate on successful practices of effective leadership in OSS communities as an example of virtual communities. Specifically, we will look how leadership behaviors influence project performance. A conceptual model of how leadership behaviors influences project performance considering several contingencies will be developed, presented and propositions as well as testable hypotheses will be derived

Prosper—The eBay for Money in Lending 2.0

When a bank or a credit union turns you down for a loan because your debt-to-income ratio is too high, can you turn to total strangers to get the money? Yes, you can, and we are not talking about criminal acts. It\u27s called peer-to-peer (P2P) lending or social lending. Prosper was the first company to take the vision of social lending and convert it into practice on the Internet in the United States, and it enjoyed fast growth after launch. Four years later, however, it is facing old and new challenges, and its survival is on the line. This case depicts the opportunities and pressures Prosper faced, its actions and reactions, and its future. Prosper has made and will make many important decisions, and Prosper’s successes and challenges are rich material to study

The Role of Social Capital in People-to-People Lending Marketplaces

The objective of this paper is to investigate the role of social capital in for-profit People-to-People (P2P) lending marketplaces such as Prosper, the largest P2P lending marketplace in the US. We examine whether marketplace members (lenders, borrowers) are able to capitalize on borrowers\u27 accumulated social capital. From a borrower\u27s perspective, we investigate the influence of social capital on borrowers\u27 chances to obtain funding and better interest rates in general as well as by borrower groups and over time. From a lender\u27s perspective, we investigate the influence of borrowers\u27 social capital on loan payment. We use data over a time span of two and a half years from Prosper, and analyze more than 200,000 loan requests and 27,500 loans. Our results suggest that social capital does not provide equal benefits to all members of Prosper and that mechanisms to promote social capital should be carefully designed

Research Agenda for Studying Open Source II: View Through the Lens of Referent Discipline Theories

In a companion paper [Niederman et al., 2006] we presented a multi-level research agenda for studying information systems using open source software. This paper examines open source in terms of MIS and referent discipline theories that are the base needed for rigorous study of the research agenda

A Research Agenda for Studying Open Source I: A Multi-Level Framework

This paper presents a research agenda for studying information systems using open source software A multi-level research model is developed at five discrete levels of analysis: (1) the artifact; (2) the individual; (3) the team, project, and community; (4) the organization; and (5) society. Each level is discussed in terms of key issues within the level. Examples are based on prior research. In a companion paper, [Niederman, et al 2006], we view the agenda through the lens of referent discipline theories

Opening the Classroom

We argue that information systems educators-and others in similarly dynamic professional disciplines-could benefit from an alternative infrastructure for learning. We present an open classroom model of education which expands upon Ferris\u27 (2002) collaborative partnership model of education by integrating open technologies such as Wiki and Open Source Software to create enduring knowledge products that more completely engage the students and provide value to society. We further view this concept through the lens of a social-technical system to demonstrate how such a system represents significant, third order change to traditional classroom environments. We illustrate our model with two successful cases from our personal teaching experiences

Addressing information asymmetries in online peer-to-peer lending

Digital technologies are transforming how small businesses access finance and from whom. This chapter explores online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, a form of crowdfunding that connects borrowers and lenders. Information asymmetry is a key issue in online peer-to-peer lending marketplaces that can result in moral hazard or adverse selection, and ultimately impact the viability and success of individual platforms. Both online P2P lending platforms and lenders seek to minimise the impact of information asymmetries through a variety of mechanisms. This chapter discusses the structure of online P2P lending platforms and reviews how the disclosure of hard and soft information, and herding can reduce information asymmetries. The chapter concludes with a discussion of further avenues for research