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The Heterogeneous Effect of Digitizing Community Activities on Community Participation

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  • Martina Pocchiari
  • Jason M.T. Roos

Abstract

Amid digital transformation, sustaining community members’ engagement in digitized versus in-person activities remains a crucial issue. This study quantifies the heterogeneous causal effects of digitization on prospective participation in a diverse set of activities organized by shared-interest communities. We analyze over 250 million observations from a leading community-building platform in 2019 and 2021, using text analysis to characterize events’ digitization, interactivity, content, and goals. We find that the effect of digitization on participation changed from negative in 2019 to positive in 2021, with digitization responsible for more than 98,000 prospective event attendees in 2021. These effects are heterogeneous, transitory, and context-dependent. For example, highly interactive events benefited less from digitization in both 2019 and 2021, whereas digitization’s impact on “book & language clubs” and “technology” activities shifted from negative in 2019 to positive in 2021. The magnitude of these effects even changes from the first to second half of 2021, as COVID-19 restrictions on in-person meetings were lifted. Moreover, although communities with higher pre-pandemic digitization benefit more from digitization in 2021, survival to 2021 is predicted far more by their social capital than past digitization. These findings provide quantitative benchmarks and guidelines for community engagement in the digital age.

Suggested Citation

  • Martina Pocchiari & Jason M.T. Roos, 2023. "The Heterogeneous Effect of Digitizing Community Activities on Community Participation," CESifo Working Paper Series 10841, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10841
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