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 Greener - a developing informal virtual organization. It aims to investigate the nature of motivation to participate and contribute in order to understand why does the motivation loss occur and suggest how it can be avoided. The investigation is supported by theoretical model that states that users’ current motivation to participate and contribute within informal virtual organization is influenced by (1) motives including (a) initial motivation and (b) costs and benefits and (2) tools including (a) design of technical features and (b) communication of specific influential information. The data collection and data analysis are realized through quantitative research methods: a representative sample of Commute Greener users is involved in a close-ended Web-based survey; statistical analysis of data is then conducted with the help of SPSS 13.1. Among the most important findings we state that: First, higher level of motivation to use Commute Greener is predicted by lower costs from using it, which means that: to actually make registered users of Commute Greener use it, the developers should first of all improve the usability and lower the costs. Second, although Commute Greener provides social networking and community services, i.e. a communicative system for a virtual organization, there is a lack of communicational content circulating within it, which means that a lot of motivating mechanisms (such as social learning, self-efficacy, etc.) cannot be implemented. Considering the fact that 23% of registered Commute Greener users never use online social communities or networks, we suggest that Commute Greener should develop both as a relatively independent application and as a virtual organization.