When Less Is More: The Effects of Reciprocal Tie Formations on Content Generation

The ever-increasing volume of user-generated content (UGC) makes discovery of quality ones more and more challenging for content consumers. To mitigate the issue, content sites started to introduce social networks that are exclusive for providers. In such directed networks, a content provider can initiate unilateral outgoing ties to promote other peers, who in turn decide whether to reciprocate or not. Despite the prevalence of this networking feature, however, little work has sought to understand the effects that the formation of reciprocal ties might have on content-generating behaviors of reciprocated providers. We develop a hierarchical Bayesian model and estimate it using the UGC data collected from a major video content site. Our results show that social reciprocity has two opposite effects on the volume and the quality of subsequent content generation. Specifically, although providers tend to upload fewer videos after receiving reciprocal ties, the reduced productivity might not be as detrimental as it appears. Receipts of tie reciprocation, in effect, encourage reciprocated providers to create videos that are better appreciated by viewers. Taken together, the uncovered effects give rise to a “less is more” UGC environment for content consumers. A more granular investigation reveals that providers with fewer subscribers are more susceptible to the positive effect of reciprocity on content quality, which may help alleviate the prevalent “rich-get-richer” phenomenon observed on content sites. This research makes novel contributions to the literature by identifying the heterogeneous effects of social reciprocity in prevalent yet underexplored provider-to-provider networks.