A Contributor’s Journey: Exploring the Motivational Factors for Online Knowledge Sharing in a Gamified Environment

Sammanfattning: This research aims to investigate the motivational aspects of gamification elements on the in-ter-organizational knowledge-sharing platform, Stack Overflow. The study addresses the gaps in existing research by providing an in-depth analysis of gamification elements' effects and exploring top contributors' motivation to share knowledge. It follows a qualitative approach, conducting semi-structured interviews to gain insights into their motivations. This thesis identifies three distinct phases in the contributor's journey and examines the role of gamification elements in each phase. This study indicates that bounties and badges have lim-ited motivational aspects in different phases of a top contributor. It also highlights the limita-tions of selected motivational theories in fully explaining the motivations of top contributors. This suggests the need for alternative frameworks such as the social practice view, to better understand the underlying motivations and dynamics. This research contributes to the understanding of the motivational aspects of gamification el-ements on knowledge-sharing platforms and suggests further exploration to better compre-hend the motivations of top contributors in their support activities.