Understanding contribution of content to

There are many publicly accessible repositories on the Internet that are created by firms and professional bodies. Such repositories are created by the uncompensated efforts of individuals contributing content e.g. book reviews or review of attractions at tourist destinations for the benefit of unknown others who may be considering reading the books or planning visits to these destinations. While the potential value of such publicly accessible online repositories is recognized, there has been little prior work examining the motivations of individuals to make contributions to them. We draw on social psychological theory and theory on prosocial behavior and volunteerism to examine this phenomenon and highlight the factors motivating individuals to make contributions to online repositories. We examine these questions using data on the profiles of contributors of reviews to a publicly accessible review repository. We find that contributors have a varied set of motivations for contributing – altruism, reciprocity, social affiliation, utilitarian benefits and enjoyment- that have also been seen in other online contexts. In addition, we observed that people also contributed to repositories because it gave them an opportunity for self-development. We also saw that a potential contributor will be more likely to contribute in an area with fewer prior contributions, and that repositories include content both from experts and non-experts