The impact of rewards within communities of practice: a study of the Systems Applications and Products online global community

This paper explores the effects of introducing rewards within a virtual community of practice: the software vendor SAP (Systems Applications and Products) online global community. The study of postings to the SAP community discussion forums shows that rewards have had a damaging effect on the exchange of knowledge and generalised trust among members within the community. The intrinsic motivation of members to share knowledge was undermined by rewards, with the consequence that the pursuit of rewards became the priority for many, over and above contributing valuable information to the community. Thus, the introduction of rewards devalued the concept of knowledge as a public good, voluntarily shared out of moral obligation and community interest. Instead, knowledge came to be seen as a private good to be shared out of economic self-interest. Following the introduction of rewards, the primary motivation of many members to participate within the community shifted from community interest and moral obligation to that of economic self-interest.