The paper develops a sociological approach for understanding the role of expectations in collective action. It argues that an approach based on expectations is better suited to explain collective action in episodes of social change than existing sociological theories. Two case studies - one on...

This paper provides the first large scale study that examines the impact of both individual- and group-specific factors on the benefits users obtain from their user communities. By empirically analysing 924 survey responses from individuals in 161 Computer Associates' user groups, this paper...