A Piece Of Cake – How Social Norms Govern Organization In The Community Of Dutch Cake Bakers

Recent research shows that professionals exchange knowledge via online communities. However, the question of how communities are governed in the absence of formal regulations and hierarchies remains lingering. We propose that social norms replace traditional organizational control mechanisms. We conducted semi‐structured interviews with members of one online community to find out which social norms prevail within their community. SNA, using community posts for whole‐network analysis and data from interviews for ego‐network analysis, was used to learn more about informal leaders in the community. Finally, we performed longitudinal content analysis on community posts, to see how members enacted the social norms. We found that the norms support, sociality, knowledge sharing, and structure governed this particular community. Furthermore, there was a strong understanding about leadership, although no explicit hierarchy was installed. Within the core community two groups could be distinguished: artists, who featured a high in‐degree centrality; and experts, who featured a high out‐degree centrality. Finally, social norms not only governed community organization, but also served to protect community knowledge. Findings are important for online communities, as they show that efficiency and order is more important to communities than previously assumed. They point out research directions concerning possibilities for entrepreneurs who seek knowledge in a potentially global network