Research on Network Governance of Peer Production Organization:Based on the Theory of Social Network
Meng Ta · Economic management journal · 2014
is new organization mode appeared in the field of knowledge under the condition of information technology,which is a knowledge mode consisting of participants scattered around the word using intemet to collaboratively provide and share knowledge product.The concept of Peer production was fast proposed by Harvard scholar Benkler and deepened since then.Open system,large number of participants,not pursuing economic rewards,spontaneous interaction and collaboration are the most distinctive characteristics of this mode from firms and markets.Open source software like Linux operating system,Wikipedia,Baidu Encyclopedia,etc.are the knowledge produced by this highly efficient mode.The spirit of open,sharing and cost free advocated by source software also promote the development and source of university courses,library opening movement and smart phone operating system.Many of the traditional industry companies are using peer mode.Procter Gamble,Dell,Starbucks and other companies have set up special website to invite consumers and other external personnel to provide products innovative ideas and designs.Customers and the general public are becoming principal parts of value creation,self-organizing in virtual community,implementing open innovation,which is the revolution to methods,organizational models and innovative model brought by peer production.The rapid development of peer proposed mystery to organization theory.The main producers of peer consists of thousands of participants scattered around the world,all of whom basically never met,generally without financial reward,only communicate through Intemet,join or exit at any time without any restrictions.How can such loosely organization efficiently provide public knowledge products like high-qualified operating system and encyclopedias? Most previous studies focused on the participants' motivation,incentive mechanism,and the research of operational mechanism is clearly insufficient.Peer depends on topological interaction between participants.Network governance is the internal operation mechanism of peer which makes it organized and completed outputs process.In this paper,based on social network theory,we focus on the network operating mechanism of peer production,attempting to resolve the peer mystery.Social networks theory is the study of actor relationship and network structure.It is feasible to apply social network theory to explain the interactive collaborative peer organization based on internet.This study apply embedding theory,preliminary suggest that peer forming network governance mechanisms through structural embedding,embedding and cognitive embedding which acts on organizational behavior in peer production,thereby enabling it continuously develop and produce performance.Thus the participants' willingness to sustainable participate,in this study,will be interpreted as explained variable variables,three embedded dimensions as explanatory variable,and the intermediary role of organizational behavior will be explored.Based on the obtainable data from the questionnaire survey conducted on peer community participants,we do empirical research on the organization's network governance mechanisms of peer production.The research demonstrates that peer production's network structures,relationships,cognitive dimension effect on organizational behavior,thereby affecting organizational performance operating mechanism.Therefore,the project managers of peer should be encouraged to strengthen opinion exchanging and cooperation among members,and improve their level of knowledge of the community and participation behavior,thereby increasing organizational performance of peer and promoting knowledge and technological innovation.