Fostering cooperation on the Internet: social exchange processes in ...

goods and services on the Internet ranging from music compilations, computer games, andsearchable on-line databases to the collective development of software.As producing consumer groups do not need to make major investments, besides acomputer in a network and their brains, they are no longer dependent on firms producing digitalgoods, but instead jointly create and exchange digital products themselves. Furthermore, andeven more important, they produce digital goods and provide on-line services that better fulfilltheir own needs. Virtual communities of creative consumers, therefore, dramatically challengethe hitherto prevailing view that the sphere of production is separated from the sphere ofconsumption (Firat and Venkatesh, 1995). In view of these developments customer-orientation isgiven new meaning and the contents and processes of exchange between companies andcustomers will have to be reconsidered if firms want to keep their customers and cooperate withthem.Establishing and maintaining mutually rewarding exchange relationships is considered animportant prerequisite for successful <strong>cooperation</strong> (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Establishing andmaintaining a cooperative relationship with producing consumers, therefore, requires a holisticunderstanding of (1) what consumers consider as rewarding and (2) how to maintain a mutuallybeneficial system of exchange on the Internet over time.The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize and explore the specific contents andprocesses of cooperative exchange relationships on the Internet. First, a brief description of thebackground and social structure of a successful creative community – the open-sourcecommunity - is offered. Second, exchange contents and processes in producing virtualcommunities are conceptualized. Exploratory evidence is based on more than 1400 responses toan Internet survey with open-ended questions among members of the open-source community.4