Investigating participation in online policy discussion forums over time: Does network structure matter?

Abstract

Online policy discussion forums can be construed as a social network where citizens interact and collectively deliberate on policy issues. It is believed that citizen participation in such forums can help in the formulation of well-deliberated policy solutions. A key concern for governments is to promote participation in such forums. Social network literature reveals that the evolving interaction patterns between network participants can influence their collective behaviors. Thus, this study aims to investigate the longitudinal effects of network structural properties on forum participation using time series analysis. Our findings reveal that network structure can have both positive and negative effects on participation in terms of the number of postings and unique ideas contributed. This theoretically grounded empirical study on e-participation, employing ARIMA modeling with transfer function analysis on social network measures, contributes to the diversity of theories and methods in IS research. Implications for practice are also discussed.