Explaining online communities’ contribution to socio-economic development

Abstract

In recent times, online communities are emerging as a potential source of information technology-led socio-economic development by enabling new generative mechanisms. Existing studies provide useful insights yet do not recognize the contributions of online communities in achieving socio-economic development. To address this knowledge gap, this paper documents a netnography study conducted on an online community for teaching the youth how to earn income online legitimately. We applied the theoretical notion of IT affordances to examine the possibilities for socio-economic action via online communities in the context of a developing country. Preliminary findings show how the online community contributes to socio-economic development by fostering collaboration, information sharing, and learning leading to income generation