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In this context, this paper is focused on the determinants of success of online communities. But, as a difference from other studies, these determinants are analyzed from the social network analysis perspective. Several constructs related to the community organization as a social network are proposed and their interrelations are hypothesized in a general research framework. The obtained results test the proposed model providing the most relevant antecedents of the project success.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>A case study based on Linux ports to non\u2010conventional processor and environments is used to test the proposed model. Structural equation modeling analysis is used to validate the structural proposed model.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>The main antecedents of online communities' success, quantifying the strength of the relation through the standardized path coefficients.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>The research is limited to a particular set of online communities engaged with the development of the non\u2010conventional Linux ports. However, they constitute a representative set of communities in the field of the open source projects (OSS) development, which are typically developed using a community of support.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>This paper fulfils the main antecedents causing the successful development of Internet virtual communities. Instead of using sources of data coming from users' surveys, this study employs community interactions as a source of data. Results have important implications over the development of online communities, like software business models based on virtual communities and open source software.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/10662240910981353","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2009,10,5]],"date-time":"2009-10-05T10:25:01Z","timestamp":1254738301000},"page":"378-392","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":64,"title":["An empirical study of the driving forces behind online communities"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Sergio L.","family":"Toral","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"M.","family":"Roc\u00edo Mart\u00ednez\u2010Torres","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Federico","family":"Barrero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Francisco","family":"Cort\u00e9s","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022020920094455400_b1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Albors, J., Ramos, J.C. and Hervas, J.L. 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