• Knowledge Management Research
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.191-213
• /
• 2016

Since the smartphone era has spurred world-over, social network services have become a part of people's daily lives. However, this relatively new phenomenon of technology development raises several negative side effects such as cyberbullying. One of the representative cases of cyberbullying is posting malicious comments online. Multiple social issues arising from this have given impetus to the "benevolent comments campaign" in order to restrain the diffusion of malicious comments. Benevolent comments have advantages that generate positive externalities such as inspiring ethics for an appropriate internet culture, but there is a lack of theoretical research on the deeper understanding of posting benevolent comments. This study thus aims to extract the motivations behind posting benevolent comments through in-depth interviews and suggest alternatives for relative issues through the causal relationship diagram of the system dynamics methodology. This work contributes to our understanding of the factors that affect the increase and decrease in benevolent comments in distinct structural frameworks.

• Knowledge Management Research
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.225-242
• /
• 2015

Cyberbullying, i.e., posting malicious comments online, has been identified as a critical issue in the online and social media context. It has become prevalent on a global scale, which happens across all ages. As a way to reduce and prevent cyberbullying, it is important to promote online prosocial behavior. In line with the concept of online prosocial behavior, we suggest posting benevolent comments against posting malicious comments as a new type of online prosocial behavior, which can combat cyberbullying and facilitate positive online culture. This study thus aims to analyze what motivates people to post benevolent comments in the online context. Based on interview methods, we extracted seven driving factors (self-presentation, pleasure, social contribution, emotional support, reputation, monetary reward, and reciprocity) and two inhibiting factors (social anxiety and effort) of posting benevolent comments online. This study has its theoretical contribution in exploring the motivation factors leading to the posting of benevolent comments by extending the concept of online prosocial behavior. It also has its practical implications by providing guidance for promoting prosocial behavior in the online context.