Online communities: a systematic review of factors contributing to sustainability

News publishers experimenting with paywalls and subscription business models are essentially seeking to set up their own online community of audience members. Online communities are also growing up around collectives of citizen journalists. Both of these phenomena make research into such communities potentially valuable. Online communities are being used to complement or replace face-to-face interactions, especially between widely distributed individuals. Organisations and individuals tend to have high expectations towards such computer-mediated communities, expecting low costs, increased interactivity and participation, open boundaries and in commercial models, the flow of revenues. However, the mere setting up of a platform to establish online interactivity is often not enough to promote the maintenance of virtual communities. This study explores the theoretical and practical factors that contribute to the sustainability of such communities. The combination of a systematic review and meta-analysis of relevant case studies carried out in online contexts provides qualitative insights to the multiple facets of this kind of interaction. The findings suggest that online communities are likely to lack theoretical foundations. Additionally, the results suggest that such communities end up being as hierarchical as classical communities can be, and that whatever benefits there might be in invisibility might be lost on members. Moreover, analysis suggests a discrepancy in the expectations members and organisations have about building identity in online communities. Although the former perceives the community as a pool of goodwill, the latter sees it as a website or a system. Organisations planning to establish online communities should dedicate considerable time to reflect on the motives for this pursuit, as the meaningfulness of such communities to their members is crucial to overall sustainability.