2023/03/09 by Sverrir Steinsson · 2 voices · 3 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #Political Influence and Corporate Strategies #Social Media and Politics #Wikis in Education and Collaboration
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0003055423000138
openalex publication_date 2023/03/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/06
Scholars usually portray institutions as stable, inviting a status quo bias in their theories. Change, when it is theorized, is frequently attributed to exogenous factors. This paper, by contrast, proposes that institutional change can occur endogenously through population loss, as institutional losers become demotivated and leave, whereas institutional winners remain. This paper provides a detailed demonstration of how this form of endogenous change occurred on the English Wikipedia. A qualitative content analysis shows that Wikipedia transformed from a dubious source of information in its early years to an increasingly reliable one over time. Process tracing shows that early outcomes of disputes over rule interpretations in different corners of the encyclopedia demobilized certain types of editors (while mobilizing others) and strengthened certain understandings of Wikipedia’s ambiguous rules (while weakening others). Over time, Wikipedians who supported fringe content departed or were ousted. Thus, population loss led to highly consequential institutional change.