User behaviors in consumer-generated media under monetary reward schemes

We investigate both the influence of monetary reward schemes on user behaviors and the quality of articles posted by users in consumer-generated media (CGM), such as social networking services (SNSs). Recently, CGM platforms have implemented monetary rewards to incentivize users to post articles and comments. However, the effect of monetary rewards on user behavior merits further investigation. Given that quality articles require more time and effort for preparation, we analyze user-dominant behaviors, including posting and commenting activities, and the quality of posted articles, using different monetary reward schemes. Therefore, we propose a monetary reward SNS-norms game by extending a conventional SNS-norms game, a social networking services model based on evolutionary game theory, and then introduce three monetary reward schemes with different monetary reward timings. We further incorporate efforts to improve the quality and preferences for monetary rewards, psychological rewards, and article quality in the agents, that is, our model of users. We have found that the timing of providing monetary rewards strongly influences the number and/or quality of articles posted using a game with monetary reward schemes on several types of user network structures, including a stochastic block model and an instance of the Facebook network. These results indicate that monetary rewards must be carefully designed in terms of timing and amount, depending on their purpose in the CGM.