Armed in ARMY: A Case Study of How BTS Fans Successfully … · 2021. 1. 18. · #1on the Billboard Social 50 social media chart for210weeks.3 ... was made known that BTS and Big

Armed in ARMY A case study of how BTS fans successfullycollaborated to MatchAMillion for Black Lives Matter

So Yeon ParkStanford UniversityStanford CA USA

Nicole SanteroUniversity of Nevada Las Vegas

Las Vegas NV USA

Blair KaneshiroStanford UniversityStanford CA USA

Jin Ha LeeUniversity of Washington

Seattle WA USA

ABSTRACTMusic fans strategically support their artists Their collective effortscan extend to social causes as well In 2020 for example ARMYmdashthe fandom of the music group BTSmdashsuccessfully organized theMatchAMillion campaign to raise over one million USD to sup-port Black Lives Matter To better understand factors of fandomsrsquocollaborative success for arguably unrelated social goals we con-ducted a survey focusing on ARMYsrsquo perceptions of their fandomand their social effort Most ARMYs viewed the fandom as a com-munity loosely structured with pillar accounts They reported trustin each other as well as high team composition which mediated therelationship between their neutral psychological safety and highefficacy Respondents attributed their success in MatchAMillionto shared values good teamwork and established infrastructureOur findings elucidate contextual factors that contribute to ARMYrsquoscollaborative success and highlight themes that may be applied tostudying other fandoms and their collaborative efforts

CCS CONCEPTSbull Human-centered computing rarr Empirical studies in collabora-tive and social computing Collaborative and social computing

KEYWORDSOnline community Collaboration Teamwork Fandom Fan ac-tivism PhilanthropyACM Reference FormatSo Yeon Park Nicole Santero Blair Kaneshiro and JinHa Lee 2021 Armed inARMYA case study of howBTS fans successfully collaborated to MatchAMil-lion for Black Lives Matter In Proceedings of CHI 2021 ACM CHI Conferenceon Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021) ACM New York NYUSA 14 pages httpsdoiorg10114511224451122456

1 INTRODUCTIONFans of celebrities movies characters sports teams and other pub-lic figures are increasingly growing in size and impact as evident

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal orclassroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributedfor profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citationon the first page Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACMmust be honored Abstracting with credit is permitted To copy otherwise or republishto post on servers or to redistribute to lists requires prior specific permission andor afee Request permissions from permissionsacmorgCHI 2021 May 08ndash13 2021 Yokohama Kanagawa Japancopy 2021 Association for Computing MachineryACM ISBN 978-1-4503-XXXX-X1806 $1500httpsdoiorg10114511224451122456

from such tangible examples as the crowdsourced fan series ldquoStarTrek Continuesrdquo [56 64] and the work done by the Harry Potter Al-liance a non-profit run primarily by Harry Potter fans who fight forhuman rights1 Similarly music fandoms have become prominentin the current landscape of social media collaboratively accom-plishing goals on these platforms on a regular basis [40 48] Due tofandomsrsquo massive size and influence it is often the negative aspectssuch as toxic behavior (eg bullying or doxxing) that garner mediaattention [13 34 52 65] Yet fandoms are also sources of positiveinfluence as showcased by numerous donations and other formsof support that fans provide not only for artists but also for eachothermdashat times for social causes that seem unrelated to their artists

ARMY (Adorable Representative MC for Youth) is the fandomof BTS a music band of seven members originating from SouthKorea that debuted as a unit in 2013 [49] Estimated to be in themillions [47 58]2 ARMY has made headlines in popular mediafor many different reasons It has undoubtedly become one of themost powerful and visible fandoms on social media [72] wherethey have accomplished a number of records On August 21 2020ARMYworked together to break the record for most YouTube viewsin the first 24 hours for BTSrsquos single ldquoDynamiterdquo with 1011 millionviews [74] As of September 12 2020 ARMY has also kept BTS onthe Billboard Social 50 social media chart for 204 weeks [8]

One of ARMYrsquos most prominent accomplishments beyond theserecord-breaking music efforts was their June 2020 MatchAMillioncampaign in which they raised more than one million USD for theBlack Lives Matter (BLM) movement When BLM was reignitedby the murder of George Floyd in late May One In An ARMY(OIAA)3 mobilized to create a Twitter thread and establish a carrd4enabling ARMYs to donate to various organizations to ldquoprovideboth immediate resources and long-term support for the Black LivesMatter movement and Black peoplerdquo3 On June 6 2020 it was madeknown that BTS and Big Hit Entertainment had donated one millionUSD to BLM This donation led to an idea for ARMY to match itand soon fans on Twitter started sharing messages to encourage

1httpswwwthehpallianceorgwhat_we_do2BTSrsquos official social media accounts report that they have approximately 29 millionfollowers on Twitter and 36 million on their BANGTAN TV channel on YouTube [47]Weverse an app BTSrsquos label Big Hit Entertainment released as a venue for BTS andfans to interact through sees 14 million users daily on the platform [58]3OIAA (httpswwwoneinanarmyorg) is ldquoa fan collective comprised of volunteersacross the globerdquo that believes in using their ldquocollective power for global goodrdquo Themotto ldquoI am ONE in an ARMYrdquo suggests that ldquomany people giving small amounts cancreate a substantial impact when we work togetherrdquo4An interactive one-page site through which ARMYs were able to donate

CHI 2021 May 08ndash13 2021 Yokohama Kanagawa Japan Park et al

each other to achieve this goal Approximately one day later ARMYexceeded the one million USD donation [7]3

Involvement in philanthropic deeds is not new for fandoms LadyGaga has encouraged her fans Little Monsters to actively engagein ldquoa range of philanthropic and activist effortsrdquo [6] One Directionfans Directioners have donated to charitable causes in honor ofmembersrsquo birthdays [68] Fans of Seo Taiji and Boys once raised35 thousand USD to plant 27500 trees in an effort to preserve theBrazilian rainforest [31] The ldquovalues inherent in fandoms haveincreasingly become the basis for political action since [] its pas-sively hysterical Beatlemania beginningsrdquo [54] However ARMYrsquosMatchAMillion feat is particularly notable in that these fans wereable to organize themselves to advocate BLM so prominently with-out BTS explicitly asking them to do so and on a scale much largerthan previously seen In fact ARMYs have organized and engagedin more than 600 fan-driven campaigns donating more than twomillion USD despite BTS never asking them directly to participatein any of these efforts3 This brings us to the guiding question ofour research

How does an online fandom collaborate autonomously effectivelyand impactfully for a cause that is unrelated to its initial purpose offormation

To address this question we conducted a survey-based case studyto examine ARMYrsquos recent MatchAMillion campaign as a uniqueexample of an impactful social collaborative effort [59] Case studyresearch is particularly appropriate as our question seeks to ldquoex-plain some contemporary circumstance (eg lsquohowrsquo or lsquowhyrsquo somesocial phenomenon works)rdquo and requires an ldquoextensive and lsquoin-depthrsquo description of some social phenomenonrdquo [85]mdashthat is howfandoms collaborate effectively for a cause separate from theirartists Our exploratory survey was designed to better understand(1) how ARMYs view the fandom as a collective (2) how individu-als become motivated to contribute to social collaborative effortsorchestrated by ARMY and (3) how they perceive the fandomrsquosinvolvement in MatchAMillion Here ldquosocial collaborative effortrdquo(SCE) refers to collaborative efforts that ARMYs undertake for so-cial reasons that are distinct from other collaborative activitiesthat directly support BTS such as streaming or voting We soughtto understand ARMYsrsquo mental models of the fandomrsquos structureconfidence in the collective shared culture [37] as well as theirmotivations for and collective achievement of MatchAMillion Inaddition to exploratory questions we also probed ARMYsrsquo percep-tions of team characteristics (eg team composition cohesion)organizational culture and the fandomrsquos efficacy and viability fromhaving achieved MatchAMillion

Our work elucidates fansrsquo perspectives of their fandommdashaninstance of an online collective or community [2] that is espe-cially nebulous due to its organic formation and evolving member-ship [51] More importantly we contribute to better understandinghow a fandom collaborates effectively through a concrete SCE Wealso shed light on fansrsquo perceptions of their collaborative effortsand the effects of the fandomrsquos success in achieving their goal in theMatchAMillion campaign By understanding the contextual com-plexity surrounding ARMYrsquos engagement in SCEs we hope to bringclarity as to whether unique factors within the ARMY fandom lead

them to quick and large-scale successes Furthermore by contextu-alizing fansrsquo perceptions of their community within group litera-ture we contribute to understanding which team characteristics areprominent in this fandom Given that fandoms have been gainingtraction growing larger and showing immense power [83]mdashandcollectives are increasingly forming in similarmanners as fandomsmdashour work may also provide grounding for understanding futureonline fandoms and communities

2 RELATEDWORKS21 Global fandom and social mediaFandom is a well-researched area of study with existing litera-ture showcasing the evolution of popular media fandom since the1930s [10] Since then fans have remained at the forefront of tech-nological transformation and have become ldquowell-integrated intothe media landscaperdquo [10] Continued advances online have im-pacted key areas of fandom regarding communication creativityknowledge and organizational and civic power [6] The internethas also become a ldquosocial hierarchy where fans share a commoninterest while also competing over fan knowledge access to theobject of fandom and statusrdquo [33]

Fandom as considered in this paper refers to ldquothe regular emo-tionally involved consumption of a given popular narrative ortextrdquo [69] Of this the ARMY fandom shows the characteristicsof ldquotransformative fandomrdquo which is ldquoa subset of fan culture thatremixes elements from original media (eg movies video gamesand books) into new media that is transformative of the originalcontentrdquo [22 25] Examples of transformative works by ARMY in-clude numerous ldquotheoryrdquo videos in which the fans connect differentelements to understand the overarching narrative of the ldquoBangtanUniverserdquo an alternate universe created by Big Hit Entertainmenttold through transmedia storytelling (eg theory explanation)5BTS Universe Story is another examplemdashit is a sandbox game inwhich ARMYs participate by creating their own stories using BTSmembers as characters and sharing them with other fans

Social media has given both individuals and groups the power toexpand their reach and create solidarities within this massive infras-tructure [18] Twitter especially became a predominantly used plat-form by digital fandoms as it emerged as a powerful tool permittingreal-time exchange of information on real-world happenings [4]Use of hashtags and the act of trending are significant aspects ofTwitter that showcase online groupsrsquo cohesion helping to bring vis-ibility to the topics they are promoting and ldquospread their relationswith their idolsrdquo [48 67] An analysis of One Direction fans Direc-tioners and their ability to influence and dominate Twitter trendsfound that the fandomrsquos Twitter network comprised many clustersof fans who were highly interconnected [70] While it was made upof some big fanbases who had the most influence due to their largefollowing each fanmdashno matter how small of a followingmdashplayed akey role in driving conversation on the platform especially if theyworked as a collective [70]

As a global fandom on social media ARMY has been exam-ined as a ldquotriberdquo with four dimensionsmdashdigital intimacy non-socialsociability transnational locality and organizing without an orga-nization [18] Chang and Park [18] emphasized ARMY as having5httpswwwyoutubecomwatchv=IUZyKoCyBeU Accessed November 23 2020

Armed in ARMY BTS and MatchAMillion for Black Lives Matter CHI 2021 May 08ndash13 2021 Yokohama Kanagawa Japan

organizational awareness and valuing teamwork while also be-ing spontaneous boundaryless self-governing and without anyleader While there is no central coordinating organization withinthe fandom ARMY is still successful in coordinating projects andachieving organizational cohesion through a structure in whichmembers propose an action spread the word and others ldquoshow uprdquofor the cause [18]

22 Activism and philanthropy by music fansA wide range of existing literature on fan activism has helped toprovide a better understanding of how fan cultures mobilize aroundpolitical and civic goals Fan activismmdashldquofan driven efforts [used]to address civic or political issues through engagement with andstrategic deployment of popular culture contentrdquomdashis considereda form of participatory culture [12] In recent decades youngergenerations have been more engaged civically and politically par-ticipating more often through informal nonhierarchical networksonline [12] According to Jenkins [36] this spacemdashwhere popularculture and participatory culture come together and there are lowbarriers to entrymdashenables civic skills to be cultivated

Activism and organization work within fandoms due to fansrsquoldquointense individual investment in the textrdquo as ldquothey participate instrong communal discussions and deliberations about the qualitiesof the textrdquo [5] Additionally the strength of fan activist groups isbuilt on shared media experiences a sense of community and thewish to help [44]

There have been many notable examples of fan activism by mu-sic fans throughout years as we have seen artists such as Lady Gagawith gay rights and U2 with antipoverty campaigns [39] It is alsoprevalent among Korean popular music (K-pop) fansmdashsaid to be pri-marily teenage girlsmdashwho have ldquolong-provoked criticism in Koreansociety due to their fanatic behavioursrdquo [42] According to Kim [42]the public started to reconsider this negative stereotype of K-popidol fandom in the late 2000s due to the transnational popularityof K-pop groups and fansrsquo philanthropic actions These activitiesare now common within the K-pop community with fundraisingand charity efforts not only initiated for civic engagement but alsoused to promote the artists they support [39] However while somemight devalue charitable acts by fandoms with assumptions thattheir motive is merely ldquoto promote their singer or that itrsquos a shal-low fadrdquo fandoms such as ARMY are proving that ldquoself-initiatedactions [] lead to factual aid regardless of motiverdquo and can becontagious [49]

23 Group identity image and valuesThe rise of social media has assisted fan activist groups in their de-velopment and widespread engagement and has also led to celebri-ties using their platforms to mobilize their fans to partake in philan-thropic and activist projects [6] Fans can be strongly impacted by acelebrityrsquos values and actions resulting in supportive and politicallyengaged fan communities For example Lady Gagarsquos fandom LittleMonsters have said that the singerrsquos political activism played a rolein strengthening reinforcing or enhancing their own views [20 26]Furthermore many were exposed to new ideas and their world-views were transformed by Lady Gagarsquos political activism [20] Thesinger was also able to influence fans who had never previously

participated in philanthropic or activist efforts allowing them torealize the change they can make through her [5]

BTSrsquos values resonate with fans but are more subtly found inthe messages and social commentary within their music whereldquomessages about youth dreams struggle and self-love [are] easyto relate to and identify withrdquo [57] A big part of BTSrsquos appeal isthe grouprsquos perceived authenticity in the eyes of fans who stronglyconnect with the members through shared lived experiences in-spiring them to believe that they too can overcome similar obsta-cles [43 57]

ARMY as awhole alsowork to uphold their own positive image inthe eyes of the public and their idols As fans build up various typesof skills knowledge distinctions and vocabulary as a fandom theyrecognize the rules of their culture [29] Because it is common forKorean media to cover news related to K-pop fan communities [42]ARMY is often found reminding each other that ldquoARMY are thefaces of BTSrdquo [49] Part of K-pop fandomsrsquo participatory culturefocuses on the responsibility to build their public image [42 49]For ARMY this has led to creating etiquette campaigns that instillldquorules of proper public behavior such as not littering around the[concert] venue not standing on the spectator seats and to bepolite when other singers performrdquo [49] According to Lee [49]ARMY aims ldquoto be exemplary fans in the image of BTS who alwaysstrive to be wholesome and good influencerdquo Furthermore fansrsquo self-reflection and control over their roles and values have also led to thedevelopment of policing structures within fandom to ensure thatthey ldquoactively and positively contribute to the [] communityrdquo [80]

24 Fandom as group and teamThe collective efforts shown by ARMY suggest that the fandomoften works more as a cohesive group team or organization than asimple network of people Therefore literature on organizations andteams is pertinent to our study ARMY is a ldquopurposive grouprdquo [30]having a clear purpose for existing (ie to support BTS) Yet defin-ing ARMY as a group which encompasses ldquoan enormous varietyof social formsrdquo [30] is increasingly ambiguous as membershipis nebulousmdashthe composition of the group shifts and sometimesinconspicuously (eg online) [81] While it is possible to purchasethe official annual ARMY membership many BTS fans still iden-tify as ARMY without this membership Prior to the launch ofWeverse2 fans had to take an exam6 to be part of the official fancafeacute Even after the launch of Weverse the fan cafeacute still exists withthe same gatekeeping mechanism [86] while on Weverse anyonecan participate as ARMY

Despite this dynamic nature psychological sense of community(PSOC) can arise in fandoms Such is the case of science fictionfandoms as found through a survey study measuring five factorsincluding belonging and cooperative behavior that suggest ldquoPSOCcan be a strong facet of communities of interestrdquo [63] Strong PSOCwas found ldquoin the absence of geographic proximity even in theabsence of regular face-to-face contactrdquo [63] Furthermore PSOCwas found to ldquopredict general participation in a community collab-orativerdquo [62] Along the same lines PSOC can be found in the way

6This exam comprised various questions (eg about BTSrsquos discography) that changedevery cycle to prevent cheating and it was not uncommon for fans to have to take itmultiple times to get the perfect score to be accepted into the community

fans use the pronoun ldquowerdquo to represent their communal identityAs seen through a textual analysis of comments on BTSrsquos officialFacebook page fans ldquomake their presence as a group known to eachother and represented as culturally heterogenous but coordinatedfor collective actionrdquo [16]

Comparable to PSOC is team cohesion described as ldquoa dynamicprocess which is reflected in the tendency for a group to sticktogether and remain united in the pursuit of its goals and objec-tivesrdquo [16] as both have the ldquointent to measure lsquoconnectednessrsquowithin a collective contextrdquo [11] While it is unclear which is themost suitable entity descriptor for fandoms (eg group team orga-nization community or network) they work together collectivelyand often show team characteristics such as team cohesion Teamcohesion has been shown to have a strong relationship with teamoutcomes which ldquomay include performance (eg quality and quan-tity) and membersrsquo affective reactions (eg satisfaction commit-ment viability)rdquo [55] In particular team cohesion has been foundto be positively related to team success [17] perceived performanceand team viability [78] Team beliefsmdashteam efficacy and team psy-chological safetymdashhave also been found to affect team performancemediated by team learning behavior [23] Team efficacy whichis ldquoa grouprsquos shared belief in its conjoint capabilities to organizeand execute the course of action required to produce given lev-els of attainmentrdquo [1] has ldquobeen found to be positively related tomany types of group outcomesrdquo including ldquoteam satisfaction andthe resulting viability of a teamrdquo [71]

As ARMY is a community based on a common interest in (andpassion for) BTS we expect their PSOC will be reflected in teampsychological safety Having had multiple successes in collabora-tive efforts for both BTS-related and -unrelated causes we expectARMYs to have a high pre-existing sense of team composition cor-related with high team efficacy We hypothesize MatchAMillion isa campaign made possible not only because of a love for BTS butalso because of a shared value system of philanthropy Finally weexpect that ARMYsrsquo perceived success of MatchAMillion will showhigh team cohesion and viability as well as higher team efficacyfrom this campaign

3 METHODS31 Survey designWe conducted a survey in order to sample the large diverse andglobal ARMY fan community Comprising free-text ordinal andmultiple-choice questions the survey collected basic demographicinformation and probed three main themes related to our researchquestion The complete list of survey questions can be found in theSupplementary Material

311 How ARMYs see ARMY We first wished to garner insightsinto perception of the ARMY fandom by its members Participantsdelivered descriptions of how they view ARMY and elaborated onconfidence (or lack thereof) in the fandom Prior pilot interviewsrevealed variances in how individual ARMYs regarded the fandommdashfor instance as an organization or a large team As we could findno established metrics specifically for fandoms we considered vari-ous metrics with which to characterize ARMY For organizational

Figure 1 ARMYrsquos culture type was assessed based on fourcharacteristics selected for each of the four culture typesmdashClan Adhocracy Hierarchy and Marketmdashaccording to theCompeting Values Framework and Organizational CultureAssessment Instrument [15]

culture particularly the ldquocompliance motives leadership deci-sion making effectiveness values and organizational formsrdquo [21]we referenced the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument(OCAI) [15] OCAI is itself based on Quinn and Rohrbaughrsquos Com-peting Values framework [66] whose axes of (1) flexibility andstability and (2) integration and differentiation are ldquoinherent in anyhuman systemrdquo [21] Inspired by OCAI we derived four characteris-tics to describe the following organizational culture types (Figure 1)Clan (flexibility internal focus) emphasizes discretion dynamismand concurrently emphasizes integration and unity adhocracy (flex-ibility external focus) emphasizes innovation and creativity whileaccommodating change and risk hierarchy (stability internal focus)emphasizes control organization and efficiency andmarket (stabil-ity external focus) emphasizes competition strategy and meetinggoals Given ARMYrsquos ability to mobilize and organize to carry outMatchAMillion we also investigated a variety of team metricsreferenced from prior literature [23 78]

312 ARMYsrsquo personal involvement in social collaborative effortsOur second category of questions aimed to assess motivations forjoining the BTS fandom clarify individual ARMYsrsquo level of involve-ment in SCEs before and after joining ARMY and understand thespecific nature of their involvement in such efforts

313 Fandom involvement in social collaborative efforts Our finalcategory of questions assessed participation in SCEsmdashin ARMY andother fandomsmdashas well as fansrsquo perceptions of both the organizationof ARMY and involvement (individually and collectively) in theMatchAMillion campaign Finally we queried participants on theperceived success of MatchAMillionmdashthe extent to which successand awareness thereof influences further participation in ARMYrsquosSCEs

32 Participants and data collectionThis study was approved by the ethics boards of all co-authorsrsquo uni-versities each participant confirmed their eligibility and approvedconsent information presented at the start of the survey prior toanswering any questions Participants were recruited through Twit-ter using a prominent BTSARMY research account with over 60Kfollowers We used this Twitter account because it has a significant

following of ARMYs from around the world (822K) Posts promot-ing the survey were shared by followers several hundred times toindividuals even outside of the Twitter accountrsquos network Overallit received over 4800 engagements on Twitter7 The diversity of therespondents who participated in the survey reflects the diversity ofthe ARMY fandom Responses were collected over 10 days fromAugust 13-22 2020

We obtained responses from 119873 = 273 eligible participants whoself-identified as ARMY and took part in MatchAMillion The agerange of participants was 18ndash63 years (119872 = 277 years) and 255(934) were female Forty-nine nationalities and multiple races andethnicities were representedWhite (407) Asian (293) HispanicLatino Spanish origin (128) Black (62) multiple raceethnicities(62) and Middle Eastern or North African (15) Complete de-mographics are included in the Supplementary Material Regardingaffiliation with ARMY 72 of respondents became an ARMY thesame year they became a BTS fan and 22 a year later Participantsindicated becoming a BTS fan and identifying as ARMY predomi-nantly between 2016 and 2018 (41 BTS fan 51 ARMY) followedby 2019 or later (38 and 43 respectively) only 11 reportedbecoming a BTS fan and 6 an ARMY in 2013ndash2015 Based onordinal responses from 1 (ldquoneverrdquo) to 6 (ldquomultiple times per dayrdquo)the social media platforms used most by ARMY were Twitter (mean594) YouTube (mean 544) and Weverse (mean 449) MatchAMil-lionBLM was viewed by all as either successful (119873 = 259) orsomewhat successful (119873 = 14)

33 Data analysisDue to the voluntary nature of the survey responses to most ques-tions were optional We report mean responses for quantitativequestions based on the total number of responses given For ques-tions assessing characteristics of teams (as reported in Tables 1and 2) we followed the procedure of Edmonson [23] First thescoring scale for questions reflecting reverse wordings (eg ldquoIf youmake a mistake within ARMY it is often held against yourdquo) wasreversed Following that based on complete responses across allcategories of interest we computed Cronbachrsquos alpha across thesub-questions for each category We then computed each partici-pantrsquos mean and standard deviation across the questions in eachcategory and correlated the mean vectors between all pairs ofcategories Motivated by Edmonsonrsquos report of the relationshipbetween safety and performance being mediated by learning [23]we additionally performed two mediation analyses First to deter-mine whether team composition was a mediator between teampsychological safety and efficacy and second to determine whetherthe relationship between team efficacy and viability was mediatedby team cohesion For these linear models we treated the ordinalresponses as approximately continuous [61] Finally for responsesreflecting paired comparisons (as reported in Figures 3 and 4) weconducted paired two-tailed t-tests correcting for multiple com-parisons within each group using False Discovery Rate (FDR) We

7Engagement is ldquoTotal number of times a user interacted with a Tweet Clicks anywhereon the Tweet including Retweets replies follows likes links cards hashtags embed-ded media username profile photo or Tweet expansionrdquo httpshelptwittercomenmanaging-your-accountusing-the-tweet-activity-dashboard Accessed December 182020

report statistical significance in figures as (119901 lt 00001) (119901 lt 0001) (119901 lt 001) (119901 lt 005) and + (119901 lt 01)

Free-text responseswere analyzed using an inductive approach [79]so that thematic codes would be driven by the responses and not es-tablished a priori For each question one researcher established suchcodes upon reviewing at least 150 responses The codebook [53]was constructed based on the discussion among four researchersthen iterated amongst the researchers using a consensus model [32]Following this three researchers engaged in coding the completeset of available responses Two researchers independently codedresponses for each question and then discussed the results to re-solve discrepancies When a resolution could not be reached thethird coder was brought in as a tie-breaker after reviewing theset of responses for that question In reporting results we give theinter-rater reliability (IRR) computed prior to discussion betweenthe two primary coders and the percentage of responses belongingto each code category Quoted excerpts are given with anonymizedparticipant identifiers

4 RESULTS41 How ARMYs see ARMYAs a first step toward understanding how ARMY carried out theMatchAMillion campaign we asked participants how they viewedARMY as a group and why Across 261 free-text responses (119868119877119877 =

100) 83 involved nounsmdashmost frequently ldquocommunityrdquo (55)and ldquofamilyrdquo (15) followed by ldquonetworkrdquo (13) ldquogrouprdquo (10) andldquoteamrdquo (10) The most commonly used adjectives were ldquodiverserdquo(31) and ldquosupportiverdquo (20) ldquoorganizedrdquo (17) ldquounitedrdquo (10)and ldquocollaborativerdquo (8) Many responses expressed multifacetedand nuanced perceptions of ARMY as a groupmdasheg ldquoA communityand a movement [] communities are groups that nurture [a] sharedidentity and have implicit social rules and a culture But ARMY is notclosed within itself wersquore interested in impacting the world so wersquorealso a movementrdquo (P114) ldquoFamily We donrsquot always get along andwe have disagreements but we fight for one anotherrdquo (P237)

Perceived structure Participants were mixed in their percep-tions of whether or not the fandom was structured as a group Ofthe 239 responses that could be coded as ldquostructuredrdquo ldquonot struc-turedrdquo or ldquomixedrdquo (119868119877119877 = 972) 55 expressed that ARMY wasstructured and 23 that it was not 22 indicated that ARMY wasboth structured and not structured depending on perspective Thosewho felt ARMY was structured sometimes mentioned large socialmedia accounts serving as ldquoinformal leadersrdquo (P001) and providingstructure by serving as pillars or hubs within the fandom ldquoThishub-spoke model happens with numerous accounts [] and they areall interconnectedrdquo (P245) Those who perceived no structure attimes acknowledged the large fanbase but felt ARMY lacked overallorganizationmdashldquoNo itrsquos not structured as a group at all though per-ception might be that it isrdquo (P018) ldquoWe just come together at timesrdquo(P137)mdashor attributed the perceived lack of structure to an absenceof a formal organizing entity ldquoNot structured but interconnected Wedonrsquot have a lsquoleaderrsquo [] but many groups or persons who lend theirskills and expertiserdquo (P074) Despite the large accounts and relianceupon them most participants viewed the community structure aslargely flat and leaderless (ie not hierarchical) ldquoARMY structure is

Team metrics Mean SD 1 2 3

1 Team psychological safety 449 190 0552 Team composition 579 116 040 0703 Team efficacy 602 139 012 027 058

Table 1 Team composition efficacy and psychologicalsafety ofARMYs towardARMYMeans reflect a 7-point scaleand account for reverse-worded questions Cronbachrsquos al-pha coefficients are presented in bold on the diagonal anditalicized values represent Pearsonrsquos correlation coefficientsbetween pairs of categories

a rhizome Therersquos no hierarchy itrsquos not linear Just roots and shootsspreading out always growing a network connectedrdquo (P037)

Organizational culture To gain more specific insights into theorganization of ARMY we asked participants to indicate their agree-ment with a set of adjectives implicating four organizational culturetypes (Figure 1) Responses on a 7-point Likert-style from ldquostronglydisagreerdquo to ldquostrongly agreerdquo scale ranged from 428 (slightly aboveneutral) to 682 (nearing ldquostrongly agreerdquo) The highest-rankedculture type perceived by individual ARMYs (including ties) wasmarket type (42) followed by clan (33) adhocracy (22) andhierarchy (3)

Team psychological safety composition and efficacy Weassessedmetrics evaluating team efficacy team psychological safetyand team composition to better understand how ARMYs viewedthemselves as a group As shown in Figure 2 and Table 1 we foundthat ARMYs self-evaluated highest on team efficacy and compo-sition and were more neutral on psychological safety Reliability(Cronbachrsquos alpha) was highest for team composition followed byefficacy and psychological safety Correlations among pairs of cate-gories did not exceed 119903 = 040 Our mediation analysis revealed thatpsychological safety significantly predicted both team composition(119865 (1 260) = 4919 119901 lt 0001) and team efficacy (119865 (1 260) = 404119901 = 0046) but that when predicting team efficacy from both psy-chological safety and team composition only team compositionwas a significant predictor (119905 = 4098 119901 lt 0001) Therefore weconclude that team composition mediates between psychologicalsafety and efficacy (Sobel test 119901 lt 0001)

Confidence inARMY Participants provided free-text responsesto describe their confidence in the ARMY fandom Out of 242 re-sponses (119868119877119877 = 981) 83 of ARMYs reported confidence in thefandom ldquoARMY is a very capable fandom with many talentedknowl-edgeable individualsrdquo (P029) On the other hand 33 described alack of confidencemdashldquoLately ARMY attacks from withinrdquo (P028)mdashand16 described both (ldquoARMY is a very big fandom which is bothbeneficial and in certain aspects problematic [] we can mobilizequite fast for comeback goals or similar but this also often fuels amob-mentality that is counterproductive and against what ARMYactually stand forrdquo (P049)) As factors inspiring confidence in ARMY56 of responses pointed to past successesmdashincluding intentionalaction such as MatchAMillion and intentional inaction such asnot trending anything during BTSrsquos performance at the Grammysldquoas we came to know of Kobe Bryantrsquos passing the day ofrdquo (P013)Feeling connected (45)mdashin their love for BTS and in shared valuesand experiencesmdashwas second most described followed by trust

(31) toward ARMY stemming from having experienced maturefans accumulated knowledge and general willingness to learn ldquoIsaw how ARMYs continued to grow learn and adapt since 2014 so Icame to trust the fandomrsquos effortsrdquo (P239) Factors leading to a lackof confidence in ARMY largely reflected internal issues (36) suchas disagreements and hatred from within the ARMY fandom egldquoPeople are very quick to jump and react quickly [] people need to bemore willing to listen and work togetherrdquo (P047) Other issues involveldquosolo stansrdquo8 and different expectations (eg ldquolazy ARMYrdquo (P099)whether BTS should make a statement on BLM) External issueswere noted as well (9) including articles written by ldquojournalistswith a bad history with BTSrdquo (P117) and actions from ldquoWestern Me-dia which undermine their achievements as POCs [(persons of color)]rdquo(P119)

42 How ARMYs see personal involvement insocial collaborative efforts

While our current study of ARMY concerns their success in carryingout SCEs our participantsrsquo top reasons for liking BTS were basedon the band themselvesmdashspecifically their music (89) message(63) members (63) and performance (51) In fact social effortsconducted by BTS or ARMYwere the least-chosen reasons (less than10 of respondents) for becoming a BTS fan and most (80) did notknow of ARMYrsquos SCEs prior to becoming an ARMY But while mostdid not know of ARMYrsquos SCE endeavors prior to becoming onemanywere interested in SCE such as BLM before their involvementin ARMY (51) Even so in querying four facets of SCE involvement(Figure 3) prior to and as an ARMY we found that involvementin all aspects increased once becoming an ARMY (all 119905 gt 563 all119901FDR lt 0001) Providing social network resources nearly doubledwhile other activities increased by an average of 05

43 How ARMYs see the fandomrsquos involvementin social collaborative efforts particularlyMatchAMillion

Our final category of questions assessed ARMYrsquos success specifi-cally for the MatchAMillion campaign ARMYs saw their involve-ment in SCE as being somewhat unique to this fandom While 21of participants indicated that they belonged to at least one otherfandom (eg One Direction Star Wars TXT anime) when askedwhether similar kinds of SCE occur in the other fandoms only75 of this subset answered ldquoYes to a similar degree as ARMYis involved inrdquo In terms of organization ARMYs felt on averagethat their efforts were at least ldquovery wellrdquo (119872 = 425) organizedand deemed that ldquoa lotrdquo (119872 = 394) of ARMYs (on a 5-point scalefrom ldquonone at allrdquo to ldquoa great dealrdquo) were involved in SCE relatedspecifically to philanthropymdashthat is not streaming parties chartingor other music promotion activities

Awareness of MatchAMillion Perhaps unsurprisingly (giventheir willingness to discuss the initiative further) 95 of partici-pants stated that they knew how the MatchAMillion campaignbegan and evolved However participants did share different detailsabout the process Across 260 free-text responses describing the

8Solo stans are fans who only support a single member of the group and largelydisregard the rest as well as the grouprsquos record label

Team com

positionTeam

efficacyTeam

psychological safety

Veryinaccurate

Moderatelyinaccurate

Slightlyinaccurate

Neutral Slightlyaccurate

Moderatelyaccurate

Veryaccurate

ARMY has more than enough training and experiencefor the kind of collaborative efforts we have to do

ARMY has the ability to solve the problems that comeup in our ARMY efforts

ARMY lacks the expertise skills or abilitiesneeded for good collaborative efforts

Achieving ARMYs goals is well within our reach

ARMY can achieve tasks without requiring us to putin unreasonable time or effort

With focus and effort ARMY can do anything we setout to accomplish

If you make a mistake within ARMY it is often heldagainst you

It is difficult to ask other members of ARMY forhelp

It is safe to take a risk within the ARMY community

Members of ARMY are able to bring up and discussproblems and tough issues

No one in ARMY would deliberately act in a way thatundermines my efforts

People in ARMY sometimes reject others for beingdifferent

Working with members of ARMY my unique skills andtalents are valued and utilized

Figure 2 Team metrics of the ARMY fandom in general Statements preceded with are reverse worded so their responsescales were reversed for the analysis shown in Table 1

263201

159 205

163201

435242

Providing financial resources(ie donating)

Providing organizationalsupport (ie creatingbackbone setting up)

Providing services (egtranslating designing

artwork tutoring)

Providing social networkresources (ie amplifying

spreading the wordretweeting)

Never At leastonce per

At leastonce per

aa aaAs an ARMY Prior to becoming ARMY

Figure 3 Frequency of involvement in SCE before and afterbecoming an ARMY Significance from paired t-tests are in-dicated by (119901 lt 00001)

Achieving ARMYsgoals [is for

MatchAMillion were]well within our reach

ARMY [can achievetasks could achieve

MatchAMillion]without requiring us

to put in unreasonabletime or effort

With focus andeffort ARMY [can do

anything we set outto accomplish wasable to accomplish

MatchAMillion]

Veryinaccurate

Slightlyinaccurate

Moderatelyaccurate

Veryaccurate

aa aaARMY in MatchAMillion ARMY in general

Figure 4 Team efficacy of ARMY in general and from achiev-ing MatchAMillion Significance from paired t-tests are in-dicated by (119901 lt 005) or + (119901 lt 01)

campaignrsquos evolution (119868119877119877 = 983) BTSrsquo donation was mentionedmost (83) followed by the internal goal setting of one million USDwithin 24 hours (68) and spreading the word (65 ldquoAlthough Iwas not financially able to participate I was active into spreading itretweeting and singing petitionsrdquo (P064)) Moreover 40 indicatedthat they or ARMY were already planning to contribute toward

the BLM movement (ldquoARMYs had been donating to BlackLives-Matter cause even before MatchAMillion began (P222)) and 30knew about the external context including recent protests and inci-dents that inflamed these protests (ldquoThe turning point was for sureGeorge Floydrdquo (P193)) Regarding ARMYrsquos broader awareness of

MatchAMillion participants perceived that a lot to a great dealof ARMYs (119872 = 462) were aware of the initiative

Providing support Among the four forms of support we as-sessed (as listed in Figure 3) 88 of participants provided social net-work resources and 87 provided financial resources while only 7provided organizational support and 6 provided services such astranslation While ARMY is lauded for achieving the MatchAMil-lion goal most of the 239 reports of motivation (119868119877119877 = 887)mentioned simply wanting to provide help (81)mdashto BLM (ldquoBLM issomething that is always important to merdquo (P052)) people of color(ldquoI just thought about [] how people of color live their lives beingafraid of the policerdquo (P156)) and the Black ARMYs suffering fromracism (ldquoAs there are many African American ARMY impacted bythis I hope that they can have hope in the fact there are so manydiverse people who support BLMrdquo (P123)) While some participantsnoted alternative motives (3) such as ldquoI think a lot of ARMY did itfor BTS not for BLMrdquo (P077) 41 wanted to support POC ARMYshelp ARMY reach their collective goal and were inspired by ARMY(ldquoSeeing that ARMY wanted to do even more it truly inspired merdquo(P176)) 35 were already planning to donate or participate in BLMas they felt it was an important cause and 29 were inspired byBTS to take action (ldquoTo see so many people coming together includingBTS inspired me to raise my voice toordquo (P169))

Uniting for MatchAMillion Participants described how theythought ARMYwas able to unite for this initiative Across 237 codedfree-text responses (119868119877119877 = 976) aligned values and good teamdynamics were mentioned most 49 believed shared values andcompassion brought them together (ldquoBTS was formed under theideal to protect their fellow generation and [to rise] against oppressionand to protect the sense of freedom of their valuesrdquo (P018)) and46 mentioned good team dynamics from active communicationand collaborative attitude to accountability toward one another(ldquoSupporting ARMYs had wide networks to spread the movementThere is also a collective lsquohiversquo mentality [and] some celebrities andpublic figures were also asked to take accountabilityrdquo (P048)) Otherfactors were well-established infrastructure (38 ldquoWe already havethe mechanism in place when we stream or buy songsrdquo (P063)) BTSrsquosexplicit stance (31 ldquoBTS united us as alwaysrdquo (P089) ldquoI was goingto donate anyway but knew that BTS would do something so waitedfor their leadrdquo (P271)) ARMY characteristics (27 ldquoARMYs are supersocially activerdquo (P105)) clarity of the goal (27 ldquoThere was a cleargoal that everybody sharedrdquo (P087)) pre-established practices (19ldquoARMY already has pre-existing fanbases and practices when it comesto collaborative effortsrdquo (P140)) and shared unrest due to BLM (17ldquoI think a lot of people were feeling the desire to help somehow withthe BLM movement and MatchAMillion was a good outlet for thoseimpulsesrdquo (P191))

The way ARMY is structured as a fandom was also seen tobe helpful (99) in achieving MatchAMillion across 240 codedfree-text responses (119868119877119877 = 978) ldquoI believe [that] ARMYrsquos groupstructure played a huge rolerdquo (P008) 3 felt that ARMY neededmore structure (ldquothe goal could have been achieved faster if therewas slightly more structurerdquo (P001)) while 2 felt that ARMYrsquos lackof structure was not helpful for the campaign (ldquoat times it was adisadvantage because we are so globally diverse with people of verydifferent values at times which caused upset in the ARMY communityrdquo(P81)) These sentiments were corroborated by ordinal responses

Team metrics Mean SD 1 2 3 4

1 Clear direction 629 103 0732 Team cohesion 615 075 038 0823 Team efficacy 622 105 065 026 0664 Team viability 606 064 026 059 015 071

Table 2 Teammetrics of ARMY from achieving MatchAMil-lion Means reflect a 7-point scale and account for reverse-worded questions Cronbachrsquos alpha coefficients are pre-sented in bold on the diagonal and italicized values repre-sent Pearsonrsquos correlation coefficients between pairs of cat-egories

on clear direction team cohesion team efficacy and team viability(Table 2) Finally participants reported higher team efficacy forMatchAMillion than for ARMY in general (Figure 4) this resultwas significant for the second statement ldquoARMY [can achieve tasks could achieve MatchAMillion] without requiring us to put inunreasonable time or effortrdquo (119905 = 294 119901FDR = 001)

Our mediation analysis revealed that team efficacy significantlypredicted both team cohesion (119865 (1 260) = 1938 119901 lt 0001) andteam viability (119865 (1 260) = 604 119901 lt 005) However conducting alinear regression to predict team viability from team cohesion andteam efficacy we found that only team cohesion was significant(119905 = 1148 119901 lt 0001) Therefore we conclude that team cohesionmediates between efficacy and viability (Sobel test 119901 lt 0001)

MatchAMillion outcomeOur final questions assessedARMYsrsquoknowledge of the MatchAMillion outcome and whether the cam-paignrsquos success would influence their future involvement in SCEARMYs were mixed in their responses Regarding knowing theoutcome of the campaign 47 of the 220 responses (119868119877119877 = 9443)answered that it was important (ldquoKnowing the outcome made iteasier for me to trust themrdquo (P224)) and 40 responded that it wasnot (ldquoIt doesnrsquot I will continue to participate as I trust BTS and ARMYrdquo(P232)) 34 stated that knowing where the donations were goingwas important to them (ldquoI wanted to be sure that my contributiondoes go to a legitimate donation drive that is dedicated to the BLMrdquo(P215)) Regarding the influence of success on participation in fu-ture initiatives 67 of the 218 responses (119868119877119877 = 9518) mentionedthat this success would encourage them to participate further ldquoThesuccessful outcome of MatchAMillionBLM affects my future partici-pation in similar efforts because I now see the benefits of advocacywithin a community to spread awareness and contribute as much asI can with others who have the same purpose in mind instead of justrelying on myself to support the causerdquo (P078) At the same time 35did not consider success a factor (ldquoNope Irsquom someone who donatesand gets involved anyways [] Irsquoll get involved in more things evenif this one would not have gone as well as it didrdquo (P159)) and 2answered that the success would affect them somewhat but theywould participate in future SCE nonetheless

5 DISCUSSIONFandoms work with and leverage social media platforms as evi-denced in our work thus how these platforms are currently de-signed and the interactions between users afforded by these plat-forms are highly relevant to the HCI community We expand upon

howARMYs view the fandom in general aswell as how the MatchAMil-lion campaign has impacted them individually and collectively

51 ARMYsrsquo perspectives of the fandom511 Understanding ARMY as a group and its structure The termcommunity was most frequently used to describe ARMY as a grouprather than an organization or network Most ARMYs perceived thefandom to have some kind of organization and more ARMYs feltthat it was structured (55) than not (23) This perceived struc-ture was mainly due to the hub-like network with pillar accountsin-line with previous literature describing ARMY as an ldquoacenteredrhizomatic systemrdquo [49] and analogous to how the Directioner fan-dom was connected ldquoDifferent fanbases and big accounts who kindof lead us and influence the fandomrdquo (P030) ARMY like Direction-ers is also highly interconnected and interacts with others acrossgeographical boundaries allowing for ldquothe dissemination of newspast a regional level and on a worldwide scalerdquo [70]

However the communities differ in that Directionersrsquo hubs wereprimarily fan accounts that provided news and updates on One Di-rection [70] whereas ARMYrsquos hubs have expanded to create a largerecosystem that includes expertise- and culture-based accounts Onesuch pillar account is OIAA who are acknowledged by ARMY askey players and having great influence making it possible for thefandom to successfully assemble spontaneously [18] just as theydid for MatchAMillion The commonality uniting these ARMYclusters or subgroups around the big accounts helps to ldquofosteridentity-based commitment to a communityrdquo [45] This is one ofmany design claims for successful online communities [45] thathave already been successfully implemented within ARMY andbrings unity in each of the subgroups as testified by ldquoItrsquos a diversecollective of people that share a common interest but the bonds thatmany formwith each other within ARMY often transcend that interestrdquo(P027) However ARMYs note that it is not merely the implemen-tation of such best design practices for online communities thatwill lead them to success as noted by the following quote ldquoI sawsomeone tweet something like lsquoItrsquos just funny how other fandomshave copied the ARMY blueprint to a T but still havenrsquot copied One InAn ARMY as yetrsquo I think that speaks to why ARMYs are as powerfulas they arerdquo (P018)

512 ARMYrsquos culture True to descriptions of ARMY from partic-ipants (eg ldquoflatrdquo (P244) ldquograssrootsrdquo (P161) ldquoleaderlessrdquo (P001)ldquodecentralisedrdquo (P018)) and prior literature (ldquoself-governingrdquo [18])the hierarchical culture type scored lowest (3) Instead ARMYwas primarily characterized under two culture typesmdashmarket andclanmdashthat are at opposing ldquodiagonalrdquo quadrants of the CompetingValue Framework that in effect have ldquocontradictory or competingrdquovalues [15 66] Market culture emphasizes winning in an ldquoexternalenvironment [that] is hostile rather than benignrdquo [15] BTS andARMY have endured misunderstanding misrepresentation andprejudice by the media and the general public (ldquointernet trolls badmedia image against BTS misinformation or accusationsrdquo (P183))mdashasa ldquomanufacturedrdquo boy band with good looks [14] supported by ldquoabunch of mindless screaming teenage girlsrdquo [41] Constantly ldquostrug-glingrdquo (P060) against these external threats of misrepresentation ofthe fandom and underappreciation of BTS (ldquoBTS has been put []in a bad light since the start of their career and that both moves us to

want to help them and makes us relate to them and their strugglesas being abused and bullied is something most of ARMY has expe-rienced both in and out of fandomrdquo (P109))mdashalong with competingwith the outgroups (rdquoinsurmountable obstacles placed in BTSrsquos waythat ARMY has no control over but also [] other fanbases that maybe jealous of ARMY and BTS (P116))mdashhas ldquo[increased] membersrsquoidentity-based commitmentrdquo [45] keeping them even more unitedThis market culture may have contributed to ARMYrsquos high teamcomposition and efficacy in general as they perceive to engage inthese struggles with success

Also supported by the clan culture type ARMY is bound byldquoshared values and goals cohesion participativeness individualityand a sense of lsquowe-nessrsquordquo [15 50] Years of supporting each otherin a ldquohostilerdquo environment may have led to profound bonding andinstilled among ARMY the perception that fans share a commonvalue of being ldquosupportive to othersrdquo (further discussion in sect 513)In ARMY fandom we can point to numerous examples of fanssupporting other fans beyond the music as they donate their timeand expertise for translating BTS content tutoring teaching andpracticing Korean mentoring and career counseling networking indomain-specific communities (eg medical legal academic) pro-viding fan arts and more [7 54] That ARMYs resonate with eachother as subjects of prejudice and discrimination further promotesthe grouprsquos and individualsrsquo psychological entities to overlap re-sulting in individual ARMYs becoming greatly concerned for thefandomrsquos welfare and success [9] Hence it is not surprising thatBTS and ARMY have formed a bond stronger than a typical artist-fan relationship and that ARMYs would perceive themselves as aclose-knit community and sometimes even refer to themselves as aldquofamilyrdquo

Of these two culture types it is reasonable that market dominatesgiven ARMYrsquos diverse range of demographics geographies back-grounds and interests Being ldquodiverserdquomdashparticipantsrsquo most-usedadjective to describe ARMYmdashcan hinder team cohesion [27] andimpede feeling greater we-ness (ldquolike any type of diverse communitythere are good and bad peoplerdquo (P121)) This may explain clan beingslightly less prominent despite ldquofamilyrdquo being the second most-used term to describe ARMY The emergence of these two culturetypes were also echoed respectively in the proportion of partici-pant mentions with past successes (56) being highest showingthe competing orientation of market culture This was followedby feeling connected (45) showing the collaborative and familialconnectedness of clan culture when explaining the source of theirconfidence in ARMY Taken together the market and clan culturesallow ARMY to be versatile and channel the culture necessary fortheir goals

513 ARMY is more than a fandom around BTS What sets ARMYapart from other fandoms is the extent to which it promotes thevalues in BTSrsquos messages [77] BTS has promoted and continues topromote values of self-love and radical acceptancemdashand taking astance against violence and discrimination based on race genderand nationality [84]mdashthrough their music as well as their campaigns(eg ldquoLove Myselfrdquo campaign in collaboration with UNICEF [24])BTSrsquos commitment to these core values is strong and clear andwas our participantsrsquo second most-selected reason for becoming afan Many ARMYs also articulated that BTS speaks and embodies

messages of not being ldquoalone in [their] struggles [and] how [ARMYs]can rely on [BTS]rdquo (P071) and henceforth brings shared values ofcompassion and empathy for others in ARMY ldquoMoral compassrdquowas also a phrase that occurred in participant responses suggest-ing that being an ARMY implies sharing the same morals This setof shared values is another layer contributing to ARMYrsquos strongsense of connection strengthened as ARMYs also widely share self-created ldquorulesrdquo of etiquette [49] much like a code of conduct Effortsto control values and behavior however can sometimes lead tocommunity policing to quell perceived unacceptable behavior [80]Some of these proactive measures are taken with the mindset thatldquoARMYs are the face of BTSrdquo [49] and this aligns with our partici-pants thinking about how their own actions align with the value ofBTS and stating that they wanted BTS to be ldquoproud of themrdquo (P068)

When it comes to specific political or social issues however BTSdoes not typically take a particular stance or promote a specific per-spective This is in contrast to some other prominent artists such asLady Gaga Halsey and Taylor Swift [3 13 75] Even with donationsmade by BTS members news is typically obtained and released tothe public by an external entity (eg organization receiving thedonation news channel) rather than the artists themselves or theirrecord label To characterize the leadership style BTS exemplifiesthe ldquoleading by examplerdquo model that inspires ARMY [57] ratherthan direct instruction or persuasion In fact BTS and ARMY seemto be characterized more as forming ldquoa horizontal relationship asfriends and alliesrdquo [49] and partners [43] supporting each otherrather than BTS directly ldquoleadingrdquo the ARMY to do certain thingsWhile this partnership between BTS and ARMY is often a synergis-tic one as can be seen from their collective contribution of morethan two million USD to BLM the lack of clear directive leader-ship can sometimes lead to the disagreements within the fandomNot seeing eye-to-eye with each other on certain political or socialissues which inevitably occurs due to the diverse backgroundsrepresented in ARMY can result in infighting and heated discus-sion this was also the case prior to the success of MatchAMillion(further discussed in sect 521)

514 Trust in ARMY

ldquoIrsquom not a very social person in real life and online but sincebecoming ARMY Irsquove started to develop confidence to put myself out

and talk with others in the communityrdquo (P011)ldquoI regularly get messages that remind me to stay healthy eat take

care of myself and such messages keep me goingrdquo (P218)

Trust formed the basis of many ARMYsrsquo confidence in the fandom(31) Mature fansmdashdespite some being ldquoridiculedrdquo (P151) for beingoldmdashwere trusted for their accumulated knowledge in BTS experi-ences in bringing ARMY to success as a collective and ability toldquotemper outrdquo (P248) those causing drama within ARMY Many werealso trusting of the fandom for their fellow ARMYsrsquo resourcefulnature and their willingness to share their expertise (ie knowledgetransfer) Other reasons for trust in ARMY came from their generalcharacteristics Having willingness to listen and learn showing sup-port and positivity and being reliable and having each othersrsquo backIt seems to be this trust which comes from various sources thatkeeps the negative aspects or members of the fandom manageableand encourages continued engagement (ldquo[] there is tremendous

work being done within the fandom for research philanthropy andsocial justice I try to highlight those projects within my own time-line and ignoreblock the negativityrdquo (P161)) Rather than ldquoswifttrustrdquo [35] which is the ldquofragile and temporalrdquo trust often expe-rienced by global virtual teams ARMYrsquos trust seems to be onethat is unconditional upon which ldquoshared values determine theirbehavioral expectationsrdquo of relationship-building and strong coop-eration [38] Such underlying trust may have led to confidence incollective goals and psychological safety displayed by some ARMYsand significantly determined their team cohesion [27]

While there was great trust in ARMYrsquos effectiveness in collabo-rative pursuits there was also a lack of trust in certain kinds of fansThis was attributed to a generation gap at times as well as cyberbullying [73 82] and cancel culture [60] that pervade social mediaBeing a fan on social media inherently carries such risks but theyare exacerbated within ARMY due to its size and effectiveness inamplifying messages Responses indicating a lack of confidence inARMY (although half of these also described confidence in ARMY)pointed to internal issues typically arising from differences in per-spectives and positions such as solo stans6 shippers (fans whoimagine and or support a romantic relationship between certainmembers) andmultis (fans who belong tomultiple fandoms) ldquoThereare certain types of lsquoARMYrsquo who are too quick to criticize withoutlooking at the bigger picture or doing proper research [and] seem tothrive off the idea that one or more of the members isare sufferingand they need to be savedrdquo (P199) Some disputes are also thought tobe stimulated by antis (haters against BTS) who had infiltrated thefandom usually under the pretense as an ARMY (ldquoI do believe thatmost toxic lsquofansrsquo arenrsquot even fans at all [] they are people posing tobe fans that just spread haterdquo (P266)) Even so some ARMYs whoidentified this as the reason for their lack of confidence and trustalso stated that they did not consider these solo stans and multisto be true ARMYsmdashbut also recognized that to outsiders all BTSfans may be viewed as the same lacking distinctions of these innercomplexities

Nonetheless these figures within the fandom and the amplifi-cation of their voices afforded by social media may have broughtabout lower-than-expected evaluations of team psychological safetyIn particular we found ARMYs slightly tending toward the state-ment ldquoIf you make a mistake within ARMY it is often held againstyourdquo This was in line with the statement ldquoIt is safe to take riskswithin the ARMY communityrdquo being evaluated as less than slightlyaccurate Therefore while ARMYs in general might have confi-dence ldquo[stemming] from mutual respect and trustrdquo that ARMYsldquowill not embarrass reject or punish [them] for speaking uprdquo [23]team psychological safety may be impacted heavily due to nega-tive figures within the fandommdasheven a small number of aggressivefansrsquo behavior can make one feel unwelcome and unsafe This mayexplain our finding that the relationship between team psychologi-cal safety and efficacy is mediated by composition Overall theseevaluations showed ARMYrsquos disinclination to take chances whichranged from sharing their opinions that would potentially enragecertain subgroups of the fandom (ldquo[ARMYs] attack each other ashard as they would an outsider trollrdquo (P123)) as well as not activelycontributing ldquoIf you are a lazy ARMY I do believe you will feel thewrath of the community [because] everyone [else] is putting in effortsrdquo

(P099) conveys that while the public goods problem does exist [19]social loafing [46] may not be tolerated within this fandom

52 ARMYsrsquo perspectives aroundMatchAMillion

521 Trust in ARMYs to MatchAMillion Trust in ARMY extendedto MatchAMillion with fans expressing their trust in the fandomto take action and contribute These actions ranged from retweetingto those outside of their ARMY network (eg non-ARMY friendsfamily) to signing petitions and watching ldquovideos on Youtube thatallowed [the participant] to donate just by giving them viewsrdquo (P089)mdashwhich they found out about from other ARMYs Everyonersquos encour-aging attitude toward those who made multiple donations as wellas those who could not make a donation but contributed in otherways built even more trust in each other and in reaching their goalAccording to multiple responses we found that ARMYs regardlessof how big or small their accounts took it upon themselves to dowhat is considered a ldquomajor task of managementrdquo which is ldquotoempower employees and facilitate their participation commitmentand loyaltyrdquo [15]mdashfrom creating ways to engage to applauding eachother for every contribution This is congruent with group efficacyliterature which has shown that when ldquouncertainty was low teammembers worked interdependently and when collectivism washigh the relationship between group efficacy and group effective-ness was positiverdquo [28] Many ARMYs also showed their trust inOIAA for their process (eg vetting organizations to donate to)transparency (eg of how much had been collected in donationsand where they would go) and success as they had been facilitatingARMYsrsquo philanthropic efforts since they were established in 2018

However many also experienced internal conflict that threatenedto break their trust in ARMY as with opposing opinions on BTSrsquosrole in BLMmdashspecifically whether BTS should publicly speak upabout the BLM movement or not9 A song by one BTS member10further fanned the fire within ARMY ldquoARMYs were at each otherrsquosthroat because Agust D [] released his mixtape and one song wasvery offensive to Black ARMYsrdquo (P021) These internal struggleswere difficult for ARMYs as numerous participants mentioned thatit was a ldquoreliefrdquo (P071)mdashsome even felt ldquoeuphoriardquo (P149)mdashwhenBTS made a statement in support of BLM and donated to the cause

522 The impact of MatchAMillion on ARMYsrsquo perception of ARMYThrough their active engagement in MatchAMillion ARMYs showedthat they were genuinely desiring to help the Black communityPOCs Black ARMYs and everyone suffering from racial injusticeThat the majority of ARMYs stated this as their first and foremostreason for getting involved indicates that the genuine desire to help

9Some felt BTS should publicly support anti-racism using their platform especiallyconsidering that their musical roots lie in Black music ldquoAs a African American fan Iwas hopeful that BTS was aware of what was going on Being that they started primarilyas a hip hop group and have 3 rappers it has always been important to me that they havealways given credit for their inspiration by my culture where itrsquos duerdquo (P072) Othersreferenced BTSrsquos history of largely staying away from political issues which is commonin Korean culture as idols ldquo[] we felt that the tone was unwarranted as it was prettycentrist of Americans to feel as if a South Korean artist was obligated to speak about theissue in the USA whilst we never felt that urge about the multitude of crises we experiencedthroughout the worldrdquo (P082)10The song by Agust D alias of BTS member Suga contained a sampling from a speechby cult leader Jim Jones which had been used in other songs prior

was a shared value that fundamentally connected them Group en-gagement model [76] supports this well as the integration of groupand individual identities induces ARMYs to become ldquoinherently con-cerned with their grouprsquos welfare and are therefore likely to behaveon behalf of their grouprsquos interestsrdquo [9] The relationship betweenK-ARMY (Korean ARMY) and I-ARMY (International ARMY) is alsoan extension of this As far as we know ARMY is the only K-pop fan-dom in which the Korean and international fans have affectionatenicknames for each other (eg K-diamonds I-lovelies or 외랑둥이) to show support and appreciation [18] During BLM despitethe intense internal conflicts and disagreement about what BTSshould do K-ARMYs trended the hashtag WeLoveYouBlackArmyto show support for fellow Black ARMYs during the challengingtime further unifying the cultural divergence in the fandom

Due to theway the MatchAMillion campaignwas set up ARMYsalso gained a greater sense of the fandomrsquos skillfulness and trans-parency leading to an even more positive perception of ARMYParticipantsrsquo responses highlighted the infrastructure (and the trans-parency afforded by it) established before and for MatchAMillionand this extended to their feelings of ARMY at large It is evidentthat ARMYs gained a greater sense of team efficacy with such asuccess as we see every statement related to team efficacy fromMatchAMillion surpassing that of ARMY in general even if min-imally While the increase in team efficacy could be attributed tothe nature of this campaignmdashwhich was achieved in approximatelyone day compared to other goals requiring more time and effortmdashitis undeniable that the success of MatchAMillion has made ARMYsbelieve in the fandomrsquos power even more This is evident from theirheightened sense of team cohesion which explains the relationshipbetween team efficacy and viability

523 The impact of MatchAMillion on ARMYs individually It isnoteworthy that while less than 10 of our participants attributedsocial efforts to joining the BTS fandom they all participated inMatchAMillion as a fandom-related SCE Even though taking partin causes such as BLM was not the reason for becoming an ARMYARMYrsquos involvement has clearly impacted them For one manyparticipants discussed how being part of ARMY contributed toonersquos self-fulfillment as they were able to experience their individ-ual abilities and efforts being amplified by working together as acommunity (ldquoBy individual I can make a [difference] By group wecan move the world evenrdquo (P196)) They discussed the sense of satis-faction and awe felt from being able to achieve something muchbigger than themselves engendering a greater sense of self-efficacy

More than half of our participants indicated they were alreadyinterested in SCE before becoming an ARMY but that being partof this community served as a catalyst to make them take actionWe found that ARMYsrsquo social identities played a role in contribut-ing to and were further established from their participation inMatchAMillion ARMY (41) was surprisingly a greater motiva-tion than BTS for participating in MatchAMillion (41 versus 29)furthering our understanding of how cohesive and committed indi-viduals have become to the fandom This heightened engagement inSCEs was also quantitatively verified as ARMYsrsquo active engagementincreased in all aspects most notably in providing social networkresources and providing financial resources

ldquoI think this encourages me to participate in other ventures withARMY I felt supported by the ARMY and felt the energy and

engagement from everyone working togethertowards the common goalrdquo (P001)

This collective success seems to be part of a positive reinforce-ment cycle that begets more future successes That 67 of responsesaffirmed they would participate in future endeavors given this cam-paignrsquos success (the rest would take part regardless of success) canbe interpreted alongside 56 of ARMYs for whom past successescontributed to feeling confident about the fandom These resultsshow that previous successes have motivated continued efforts in-cluding MatchAMillion and with this success they are even morewilling and eager to be part of future collective efforts therebyfurthering their social identities as well

Finally being in the community not only encouraged many totake actions but also benefited individuals in other ways ManyARMYs especially those not in the United States stated that BLMwas not covered in their local media and through ARMY they wereable to learn about racial discrimination in the US The experienceof amplifying the social message and participating in the campaignalso enabled these individuals to learn how to effectively manageprojects and better utilize tools like social media

53 Design implicationsThere are four implications for platforms to support online com-munities including fandoms that can be derived from our study

First provide affordances for users to bemore aware of the extentof their community While ARMYs most frequently described thefandom as a community they were divided in their understandingof its structure This mismatched mental model of the fandom couldprevent ARMYs especially newcomers from understanding howthe fandom spans and functions accurately

Second enable users to understand and find the subgroups bywhom they wish to be surrounded If fans are able to see the net-work of their community and how certain accounts are connectedwith each other visually it could help identify particular subgroupsthat are of interest to them It could also help filter out potentiallyproblematic accounts (eg newly made accounts used for spread-ing misinformation) This would help users to distinguish whichinformation is aligned with the overall community and which areoutliers As discussed above network analysis on social media usecould help reveal the overall structure to enable ARMYs to un-derstand which part of the global network they are positioned inThis could further help subgroups strategize together and possiblyachieve bigger goals than MatchAMillion

Third it is important to help users be cognizant of the impactof their community ARMYs being able to know about prior suc-cess and transparency were important for building trust in pillaraccounts Therefore incorporating tools for greater transparencycould also heighten ARMYrsquos trust in each other and further theirteam cohesion

Lastly the fandomrsquos pillar accounts were highlighted as beingimportant in multiple responses Yet there are some instabilitieswhere important accounts are restricted or suspended especiallybefore the new album releases from the artists (eg One in an

ARMYrsquos account for instance was recently restricted on Twitter)11If the social media platform allows for a more democratic approachin verifying and even protecting these accounts rather than havingto go through a vague process built in a hierarchical structurecontrolled by a group of developers it would add more stabilityto the pillar accounts and for the community that are critical formassive collaborative efforts

6 LIMITATIONS AND FUTUREWORKSSurvey recruitment was mostly through Twitter and thus we arerepresenting the perspective of ARMYs who are active on this par-ticular platform as opposed to other social media Given that theMatchAMillion campaign was organized and conducted in Twitterwe felt that focusing on Twitter ARMY made sense Despite obtain-ing rich responses through our survey instrument there could bemore detailed nuances that aremissing Thus future studies employ-ing more qualitative methods such as interviews would help furtherverify our findings Moreover the survey responses for some of thequestions could be affected by recencyavailability heuristics andrequire accurate recall (eg of frequency of involvement in their so-cial collaborative efforts and team efficacy before MatchAMillion)A long-term investigation could provide a more comprehensiveoverview with reduction of such biases Lastly ARMY is a mas-sive fandom and accordingly we note the limitation of generalizingfindings from 273 responses to represent the perspectives from thewhole fandom

7 CONCLUSIONInvestigating the case of ARMY and their MatchAMillion campaignhas enabled us to build a better understanding of the contextualcomplexities which can help to explain the success of collaborativeefforts of an online community working toward causes unrelatedto the communityrsquos formation In the case of ARMY despite itsreported lack of a central hierarchical structure the distributedrhizome structure supported by pillar accounts as the backbone ofthe community provided the infrastructure needed for effective or-ganization and mobilization In addition participants revealed thatthe unique characteristics inherent to ARMY based on their set ofshared core values largely contributed to the success of their effortsBecause the fandom operates on social media it is impossible toavoid typical associated risks and pitfalls accompanying its use Inaddition the internal fights due to different perspectives and typesof fans further likely contributed to the lower psychological safetyreported by ARMYs However the deep trust and companionshipin the ARMY community founded in shared values and previoussuccesses seemed to compensate for these negative aspects and ledto higher evaluations of team composition which we found to medi-ate the relationship between psychological safety and team efficacySimilarly we also found that team cohesion was a mediating factorbetween the fandomrsquos viability predicted by team efficacy Suchfindings and insights contribute towards a better understanding ofhow platforms can be designed further to support such large onlinecommunities Lastly from the perspective of the general publicor outsiders because of the massive size of the fandom and their

11httpstwittercomMaryArc96171172status1330688450660536320s=20 AccessedNovember 23 2020

mobilization power it may be tempting to speculate how onlinegroups like this may be utilized for weaponization on social mediaHowever a deeper investigation reveals that the core reason forARMYrsquos success lies in the shared values of the community mem-bers in addition to their strong desire to do ldquogoodrdquo to amplify BTSrsquospositive influence We may question whether other large fandomson social media share similar traits but at the minimum we cansay that without deeper understanding of each fandomrsquos cultureit would be premature to make generalized statements about howthey may use their power

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSWewould like to thank all the ARMYs for their thoughtful responsesand for their participation in our study We also would like to showour appreciation for the three ARMYs who participated in our pilotinterview We also thank BTS for inspiring this research and theirpositive influence on ARMYs

REFERENCES[1] Albert Bandura 2010 Self-efficacy The Corsini encyclopedia of psychology (2010)

1ndash3[2] Nancy K Baym 2007 The new shape of online community The example of

Swedish independent music fandom (2007)[3] BBCNewsbeat August 24 2017 Halsey takes a stand against Russiarsquos anti-gay

laws httpwwwbbccouknewsbeatarticle41033972halsey-takes-a-stand-against-russias-anti-gay-laws Accessed September 16 2020

[4] Hila Becker Mor Naaman and Luis Gravano 2011 Beyond Trending TopicsReal-World Event Identification on Twitter ICWSM 11

[5] Lucy Bennett 2011 Fan activism for social mobilization A critical review of theliterature Transformative Works and Cultures 10 (2011)

[6] Lucy Bennett 2014 lsquoIf we stick together we can do anythingrsquo Lady Gaga fandomphilanthropy and activism through social media Celebrity studies 5 1-2 (2014)138ndash152

[7] Aditi Bhandari July 14 2020 How the South Korean bandrsquos fanbase ndash knownas ARMY ndash raised over $1 million for the Black Lives Matter movementmostly in just one day httpsgraphicsreuterscomGLOBAL-RACEBTS-FANSnmopajgmxva Accessed September 1 2020

[8] Billboard [nd] SOCIAL 50 httpswwwbillboardcomchartssocial-50Accessed September 7 2020

[9] Steven L Blader and Tom R Tyler 2009 Testing and extending the group en-gagement model Linkages between social identity procedural justice economicoutcomes and extrarole behavior Journal of applied psychology 94 2 (2009) 445

[10] Paul Booth 2010 Digital fandom New media studies Peter Lang[11] Neil M Boyd and Branda Nowell 2014 Psychological sense of community A

new construct for the field of management Journal of Management Inquiry 23 2(2014) 107ndash122

[12] Melissa Brough and Sangita Shresthova 2011 Fandommeets activism Rethinkingcivic and political participation Transformative Works and Cultures 10 (01 2011)httpsdoiorg103983twc20120303

[13] Kenzie Bryant July 5 2017 Lady Gaga Calls Off Her Twitter Army That AttackedEd Sheeran for Basically No Reason httpswwwvanityfaircomstyle201707ed-sheeran-lady-gaga-twitter-trolls Accessed September 6 2020

[14] Sarah C April 29 2019 The Curious Case Of BTS How Journalism MistakesProduction For Manufacture httpsmediumcomselizabethcraventhe-curious-case-of-bts-how-journalism-mistakes-production-for-manufacture-73721c270088 Accessed September 13 2020

[15] Kim S Cameron and Robert E Quinn 2011 Diagnosing and changing organiza-tional culture Based on the competing values framework John Wiley amp Sons

[16] Albert V Carron 1982 Cohesiveness in sport groups Interpretations and consid-erations Journal of Sport psychology 4 2 (1982)

[17] Albert V Carron Steven R Bray and Mark A Eys 2002 Team cohesion and teamsuccess in sport Journal of sports sciences 20 2 (2002) 119ndash126

[18] WoongJo Chang and Shin-Eui Park 2018 The Fandom of Hallyu A Tribe in theDigital Network Era The Case of ARMY of BTS Kritika Kultura 0 32 (2018) 260ndash287 httpsjournalsateneoeduojsindexphpkkarticleviewKK201903213

[19] Edward H Clarke 1971 Multipart pricing of public goods Public choice 11 1(1971) 17ndash33

[20] Melissa A Click Hyunji Lee and Holly W Holladay 2017 lsquoYoursquore born to bebraversquo Lady Gagarsquos use of social media to inspire fansrsquo political awarenessInternational Journal of Cultural Studies 20 6 (2017) 603ndash619

[21] Daniel R Denison Gretchen M Spreitzer et al 1991 Organizational cultureand organizational development A competing values approach Research inorganizational change and development 5 1 (1991) 1ndash21

[22] Brianna Dym and Casey Fiesler 2020 Social Norm Vulnerability and its Conse-quences for Privacy and Safety in an Online Community Proceedings of the ACMon Human-Computer Interaction 4 CSCW2 (2020) 1ndash24

[23] Amy Edmondson 1999 Psychological safety and learning behavior in workteams Administrative science quarterly 44 2 (1999) 350ndash383

[24] Big Hit Entertainment [nd] BTS joins hands with the United Nations ChildrenrsquosFund (UNICEF) to stage campaigns against violence toward children and teensaround the world with the hope of making the world a better place throughmusic httpswwwlove-myselforgenghome Accessed September 15 2020

[25] Casey Fiesler and Amy S Bruckman 2019 Creativity Copyright and Close-Knit Communities A Case Study of Social Norm Formation and EnforcementProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3 GROUP (2019) 1ndash24

[26] Benson P Fraser and William J Brown 2002 Media Celebrities and SocialInfluence Identification With Elvis Presley Mass Communication and Society 52 (2002) 183ndash206 httpsdoiorg101207S15327825MCS0502_5

[27] Gary Garrison Robin L Wakefield Xiaobo Xu and Sang Hyun Kim 2010 Glob-ally distributed teams The effect of diversity on trust cohesion and individualperformance ACM SIGMIS Database the database for Advances in InformationSystems 41 3 (2010) 27ndash48

[28] Cristina B Gibson 1999 Do they do what they believe they can Group efficacyand group effectiveness across tasks and cultures Academy of ManagementJournal 42 2 (1999) 138ndash152

[29] Betsy Gooch 2008 The Communication of Fan Culture The Impact of NewMedia on Science Fiction and Fantasy Fandom

[30] J Richard Hackman and Nancy Katz 2010 Group behavior and performance(2010)

[31] Katelyn Hemmeke 2017 Planting Rainforests and Donating Rice The FascinatingWorld of K-pop Fandom httpswwwkoreaexposecomfascinating-world-k-pop-fandom-culture Accessed September 15 2020

[32] Clara E Hill Sarah Knox Barbara J Thompson Elizabeth Nutt Williams Shirley AHess and Nicholas Ladany 2005 Consensual qualitative research An updateJournal of counseling psychology 52 2 (2005) 196

[33] Matthew Hills 2002 Fan Cultures[34] Charles Holmes August 1 2018 Meet The Barbz The Nicki Minaj Fandom

Fighting the lsquoNicki Hate Trainrsquo httpswwwrollingstonecommusicmusic-newsmeet-the-barbz-the-nicki-minaj-fandom-fighting-the-nicki-hate-train-705438 Accessed September 6 2020

[35] Sirkka L Jarvenpaa and Dorothy E Leidner 1999 Communication and trust inglobal virtual teams Organization science 10 6 (1999) 791ndash815

[36] Henry Jenkins 2006 Convergence Culture NYU Press[37] Henry Jenkins 2012 Textual poachers Television fans and participatory culture

Routledge[38] Gareth R Jones and Jennifer M George 1998 The experience and evolution of

trust Implications for cooperation and teamwork Academy of managementreview 23 3 (1998) 531ndash546

[39] Sun Jung 2011 Fan Activism Cybervigilantism and Othering Mechanismsin K-pop Fandom Transformative Works and Cultures 10 (03 2011) httpsdoiorg103983twc20120300

[40] Jiwon Kang Minsung Lee Eunil Park Minsam Ko Munyoung Lee and JinyoungHan 2019 Alliance for My Idol Analyzing the K-pop Fandom CollaborationNetwork In Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors inComputing Systems 1ndash6

[41] Donna Kaudel August 13 2020 A Momentary Rainbow BTS and ARMY asCo-Creators httpsmediumcomrevolutionariesa-momentary-rainbow-bts-and-army-as-co-creators-80890741fb7b Accessed September 13 2020

[42] Ju Oak Kim 2015 Reshaped reconnected and redefined Media portrayals ofKorean pop idol fandom in Korea The Journal of Fandom Studies 3 (03 2015)httpsdoiorg101386jfs3179_1

[43] Youngdae Kim and HJ Chung 2019 BTS The Review A Comprehensive Look atthe Music of BTS RH Korea

[44] Neta Kligler-Vilenchik Joshua McVeigh-Schultz Christine Weitbrecht and ChrisTokuhama 2011 Experiencing fan activism Understanding the power of fanactivist organizations through membersrsquo narratives Transformative Works andCultures 10 (01 2011) httpsdoiorg103983twc20120322

[45] Robert E Kraut and Paul Resnick 2012 Building successful online communitiesEvidence-based social design Mit Press

[46] Bibb Lataneacute KiplingWilliams and StephenHarkins 1979 Many handsmake lightthe work The causes and consequences of social loafing Journal of personalityand social psychology 37 6 (1979) 822

[47] Jiyoung Lee September 9 2020 BTS아미팬덤넘어국경없는공동체로진화중 httpswwwhankookilbocomNewsReadA2020090709320000045did=NSampdtype=2 Accessed September 9 2020

[48] Jin Ha Lee and Anh Thu Nguyen 2020 How Music Fans Shape CommercialMusic Services A Case Study of BTS and ARMY In Proceedings of the ISMIR

2020[49] Ji-young Lee 2019 BTS Art revolution BTS Meets Deleuze Seoul Parrhesia

Publishers (2019)[50] Shin Lee Jin-Young Tak Eun-Joo Kwak and Tae Lim 2019 Fandom social media

and identity work The emergence of virtual community through the pronounldquowerdquo Psychology of Popular Media Culture (10 2019) httpsdoiorg101037ppm0000259

[51] C Lee Harrington and Denise D Bielby 2010 A life course perspective on fandomInternational journal of cultural studies 13 5 (2010) 429ndash450

[52] Rebecca Macatee July 11 2017 The Fiery Side of Celebrity Fan-dom Why the BeyHive and Little Monsters Really Attack httpswwweonlinecomnews866060the-fiery-side-of-celebrity-fandom-why-the-beyhive-and-little-monsters-really-attack Accessed September 6 2020

[53] Kathleen M MacQueen Eleanor McLellan Kelly Kay and Bobby Milstein 1998Codebook development for team-based qualitative analysis Cam Journal 10 2(1998) 31ndash36

[54] Emma Madden June 11 2020 The BTS Army and the Transformative Power ofFandom As Activism httpswwwtheringercommusic202061121287283bts-army-black-lives-matter-fandom-activism Accessed September 15 2020

[55] John Mathieu M Travis Maynard Tammy Rapp and Lucy Gilson 2008 Teameffectiveness 1997-2007 A review of recent advancements and a glimpse into thefuture Journal of management 34 3 (2008) 410ndash476

[56] Brent McKnight 2014 Obsession Chronicles Star Trek Fanrsquos Efforts To FinishOut The Five Year Mission httpswwwgiantfreakinrobotcomscifiobsession-chronicles-star-trek-fans-efforts-finish-year-missionhtml Accessed September6 2020

[57] Courtney McLaren and Dal Yong Jin 2020 You Cant Help But Love ThemBTS Transcultural Fandom and Affective Identities Korea Journal 60 1 (2020)100ndash127

[58] Stephanie Mehta March 10 2020 Millions of BTS fans use these 2 apps to connectand shop No tech startups needed httpswwwfastcompanycom90457458big-hit-entertainment-most-innovative-companies-2020 Accessed September 152020

[59] SB Merriam and ET Tisdell 2009 Qualitative research A guide to design andimplementation San Francisco CA John Wileyamp Sons

[60] Brandon Nguyen 2020 Cancel Culture on Twitter The Effects of Informa-tion Source and Messaging on Post Shareability and Perceptions of CorporateGreenwashing (2020)

[61] Geoff Norman 2010 Likert scales levels of measurement and the ldquolawsrdquo ofstatistics Advances in Health Sciences Education 15 5 (01 Dec 2010) 625ndash632httpsdoiorg101007s10459-010-9222-y

[62] Branda Nowell and Neil M Boyd 2014 Sense of community responsibility incommunity collaboratives Advancing a theory of community as resource andresponsibility American Journal of Community Psychology 54 3-4 (2014) 229ndash242

[63] Patricia Obst Lucy Zinkiewicz and Sandy G Smith 2002 Sense of communityin science fiction fandom Part 1 Understanding sense of community in aninternational community of interest Journal of Community Psychology 30 1(2002) 87ndash103

[64] Musings of a Middle-Aged Geek November 18 2017 Star Trek Continuesfinishes the original five-year mission httpsmusingsofamiddleagedgeekblog20171118star-trek-continues-finishes-the-original-five-year-mission Ac-cessed September 6 2020

[65] Kate Prince April 20 2020 Selena Gomez Fans Mercilessly Bully Demi LovatoOver Private Instagram httpswwwccncomselena-gomez-fans-mercilessly-bully-demi-lovato-over-private-instagram Accessed September 6 2020

[66] Robert E Quinn and John Rohrbaugh 1981 A competing values approach toorganizational effectiveness Public productivity review (1981) 122ndash140

[67] Raquel Recuero Adriana Amaral and Camila Monteiro 2012 Fandoms TrendingTopics and Social Capital in Twitter SPIR - Selected Papers of Internet Research 13(10 2012)

[68] Madeline Roth February 1 2015 One Direction Fans Gave Harry Styles theSweetest Birthday Present Ever httpwwwmtvcomnews2065632harry-styles-birthday-fundraiser Accessed September 7 2020

[69] Cornel Sandvoss 2005 Fans The mirror of consumption Polity[70] Nicole Santero 2016 Nobody Can Drag Me Down An Analysis of the One Direction

Fandomrsquos Ability to Influence and Dominate Worldwide Twitter Trends Masterrsquosthesis University of Nevada Las Vegas Las Vegas NV

[71] Stephanie Schoss Diemo Urbig Malte Brettel and Reneacute Mauer 2020 Deep-leveldiversity in entrepreneurial teams and the mediating role of conflicts on teamefficacy and satisfaction International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal(2020) 1ndash31

[72] Yoonjung Seo and Julia Hollingsworth October 20 2019 BTSrsquo army of admirersInside one of the worldrsquos most powerful fandoms httpswwwcnncom20191012asiabts-fandom-army-intl-hnkindexhtml Accessed September 16 2020

[73] Robert Slonje and Peter K Smith 2008 Cyberbullying Another main type ofbullying Scandinavian journal of psychology 49 2 (2008) 147ndash154

[74] Todd Spangler 2020 BTS rsquoDynamitersquo Breaks YouTube Record for Most-ViewedVideo in First 24 Hours With 101 Million Views httpsvarietycom2020digitalnewsbts-dynamite-youtube-record-most-viewed-24-hour-1234743960 Ac-cessed September 6 2020

[75] Kirsten Spruch and Heran Mamo May 29 2020 A Timeline of Taylor SwiftrsquosPolitical Evolution httpswwwbillboardcomarticlescolumnspop8528527taylor-swift-political-evolution-timeline Accessed September 16 2020

[76] Henri Tajfel John C Turner William G Austin and Stephen Worchel 1979 Anintegrative theory of intergroup conflict Organizational identity A reader 56(1979) 65

[77] Daily Vox Team 2020 How BTS ARMY Worldwide Has Shared The Love My-self Campaign httpswwwthedailyvoxcozabts-army-shared-love-myself-campaign-fatima-moosa-shaazia-ebrahim Accessed September 15 2020

[78] Amanuel G Tekleab Narda R Quigley and Paul E Tesluk 2009 A longitudinalstudy of team conflict conflict management cohesion and team effectivenessGroup amp Organization Management 34 2 (2009) 170ndash205

[79] David R Thomas 2006 A general inductive approach for analyzing qualitativeevaluation data American journal of evaluation 27 2 (2006) 237ndash246

[80] Brittany Tinaliga 2018 At War for OPPA and Identity Competitive Performativityamong Korean-Pop Fandom Masterrsquos thesis University of San Francisco SanFrancisco CA

[81] Ruth Wageman Debra A Nunes James A Burruss and J Richard Hackman 2008Senior leadership teams What it takes to make them great Harvard BusinessReview Press

[82] Elizabeth Whittaker and Robin M Kowalski 2015 Cyberbullying via social mediaJournal of school violence 14 1 (2015) 11ndash29

[83] Davey Winder Sep 6 2020 Meet The New Anonymousmdash100 MillionBTS ARMY And K-Pop Stans A Cyber Force To Be Reckoned Withhttpswwwforbescomsitesdaveywinder20200906meet-the-new-anonymous-100-million-bts-army-and-k-pop-stans-a-cyber-threat-to-be-reckoned-with130f1b042640 Accessed September 6 2020

[84] Hyun-su Yim 2018 BTSrsquo motivational UN speech transcends race and genderidentity httpwwwkoreaheraldcomviewphpud=20180925000087 AccessedSeptember 15 2020

[85] Robert K Yin 2017 Case study research and applications Design and methodsSage publications

[86] Jonathan Zittrain 2005 A history of online gatekeeping Harv JL amp Tech 19(2005) 253

Abstract

1 Introduction

2 Related Works

21 Global fandom and social media

22 Activism and philanthropy by music fans

23 Group identity image and values

24 Fandom as group and team

3 Methods

31 Survey design

32 Participants and data collection

33 Data analysis

4 Results

41 How ARMYs see ARMY

42 How ARMYs see personal involvement in social collaborative efforts

43 How ARMYs see the fandomrsquos involvement in social collaborative efforts particularly MatchAMillion

5 Discussion

51 ARMYs perspectives of the fandom

52 ARMYs perspectives around MatchAMillion

53 Design implications

6 Limitations and Future Works

7 Conclusion

Acknowledgments

References