Fostering the determinants of knowledge sharing in professional virtual communities

Professional virtual communities (PVCs), which are formed on the Internet, are expected to serve the needs of members for communication, information, and knowledge sharing. The executives of organizations should consider PVCs as a new innovation or knowledge pool since members share knowledge. However, many PVCs have failed due to members’ low willingness to share knowledge with other members. Thus, there is a need to understand and foster the determinants of members’ knowledge sharing behavior in PVCs. This study develops an integrated model designed to investigate and explain the relationships between contextual factors, personal perceptions of knowledge sharing, knowledge sharing behavior, and community loyalty. Empirical data was collected from three PVCs and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) to verify the fit of the hypothetical model. The results show that trust significantly influences knowledge sharing self-efficacy, perceived relative advantage and perceived compatibility, which in turn positively affect knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, the study finds that the norm of reciprocity does not significantly affect knowledge sharing behavior. The results of the study can be used to identify the motivation underlying individuals’ knowledge sharing behavior in PVCs. By investigating the impacts of contextual factors and personal perceptions on knowledge sharing behavior, the integrated model better explains behavior than other proposed models. This study might help executives of virtual communities and organizations to manage and promote these determinants of knowledge sharing to stimulate members’ willingness to share knowledge and enhance their virtual community loyalty. As only little empirical research has been conducted on the impact of knowledge sharing self-efficacy, perceived relative advantage, and perceived compatibility on the individual’s knowledge sharing behavior in PVCs, the empirical evidence reported here makes a valuable contribution in this highly important area.     

Why would online gamers share their innovation-conducive knowledge in the online game user community? Integrating individual motivations and social capital perspectives

The user community has been an important external source of a firm’s product or service innovation. Users’ innovation-conducive knowledge sharing enables the community to work as a vital source of innovation. But, traditional economic theories of innovation seem to provide few explanations about why such knowledge sharing takes place for free in the user community. Therefore, this study investigates what drives community users to freely share their innovation-conducive knowledge, using the theory of planned behavior. Based on an empirical analysis of the data from 1244 members of a South Korean online game user community, it reveals that intrinsic motivation, shared goals, and social trust are salient factors in promoting users’ innovation-conducive knowledge sharing. Extrinsic motivation and social tie, however, were found to affect such sharing adversely, contingent upon whether a user is an innovator or a non-innovator. The study illustrates how social capital, in addition to individual motivations, forms and influences users’ innovation-conducive knowledge sharing in the online gaming context.     

A study of Facebook Groups members’ knowledge sharing

There have been many studies focusing on individuals’ knowledge sharing behavior in the organizational setting. With the rapid prevalence of social networking sites, many people began to express their thoughts or share their knowledge via Facebook website. Facebook is an open environment which does not provide any immediate monetary benefits to its users. Its Groups members’ knowledge sharing behavior could be different from the ones in organizations. We proposed a research model to examine factors which promote the Facebook Groups users’ willingness to share knowledge. The factors in the study include extrinsic motivation, social and psychological forces, and social networking sharing culture. We used PLS to test our proposed hypotheses based on 271 responses collected through an online survey. Our results indicated that reputation would affect knowledge sharing attitude of Groups members and sense of self-worth would directly and indirectly (through subjective norm) affect the attitude. In addition, social networking sharing culture (fairness, identification, and openness) is the most significant factor, not only directly affecting knowledge sharing intention, but also indirectly influencing the sharing intention through subjective norm and knowledge sharing attitude.     

The effect of the nonhuman external regulator’s answer-until-correct (AUC) versus knowledge-of-result (KR) task feedback on children’s behavioral regulation during learning tasks

The present study was conducted to shed a new light on the nonhuman’s external regulation effect on children’s behavioral regulation through investigating the effect of the computer’s task feedback answer-until-correct (AUC) versus knowledge-of-result (KR) with 40 preschool children (boys/girls) divided into AUC-Condition versus KR-Condition. The Aginian’s methodology (Agina, Kommers, & Steehouder, 2010) with the latest updates (Agina, Kommers, & Steehouder, 2011) was used, which involves an isolated, computer-based learning system with three different computer’s agents for measuring self-regulation as a function of the task level selection, self-regulation as a function of task precision, and special agent for evaluating children’s satisfaction. It was hypothesized that AUC-Condition will outperform KR-Condition in verbalization intensity, manifested self-regulation, and the degree of satisfaction. Despite the results were not confirmed the hypothesis, the results generated by the game were consistent with the statistical results in which this consistency increases, to a great extent, the reliability of the Aginian’s measurements. However, both results were not confirmed Vygotsky’s view or Piaget’s view of self-regulation development as both concluded that thinking aloud and self-regulation have a reverse relationship and, therefore, thinking aloud, per se, can be used to explore the problems the children may not agree to talk about.     

Employee creativity formation: The roles of knowledge seeking,knowledge contributing and flow experience in Web 2.0 virtual communities

Knowledge seeking and knowledge contributing are two distinct types of behaviors, both of which must occur for the presumed benefits of knowledge sharing to be realized. Self-perception theory posits that individuals come to ‘know’ their own internal beliefs by inferring them partially from observations of their own overt behavior. Building on self-perception theory and adhering to the principle that knowledge sharing facilitates knowledge creation, we develop a research model to explore the consequences of both knowledge seeking and knowledge contributing behavior given the consideration that flow plays a lubricating role in the formation of creativity. Data collected from 232 users of Web 2.0 virtual communities were used to test the model. We found that both knowledge seeking and knowledge contributing can lead to a state of flow and can further result in creativity at work. These findings and their implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Fostering sharing of unshared knowledge by having access to the collaborators’ meta-knowledge structures

The present experimental study focuses on two problems occurring in computer-supported collaborative learning situations: First, it has been empirically proven that groups discuss mainly shared information, that is, information already known to all group members, while unshared information, that is, information known to only one member, is often neglected. However, such unshared information could be task-relevant. Therefore, taking unshared information into consideration should be fostered. Second, Wegner’s theory of transactive memory system points out that groups perform better when the group members are informed about their collaborators’ knowledge. However, acquiring correct knowledge about what others know is difficult. An approach for solving these two problems is introduced which provides the group members with the collaborators’ meta-knowledge structures by means of digital concept maps. The study compares 20 triads with spatially distributed group members that had access to their collaborators’ meta-knowledge maps with 20 triads collaborating without these maps. Results showed, as expected, that the triads having been provided with such maps started sooner to discuss unshared information, applied more of their collaborators’ unshared information, and processed unshared information more deeply. Additional results, however, demonstrated in contrast to Wegner’s theory that being informed about the collaborators’ meta-knowledge is not sufficient to increase group performance.     

The effect of the external regulator’s absence on children’s speech use, manifested self-regulation, and task performance during learning tasks

The present study was conducted to explore the effect of the absence of the external regulators on children’s use of speech (private/social), task performance, and self-regulation during learning tasks. A novel methodology was employed through a computer-based learning environment that proposed three types/units of encouragement with only two sequences of instructional conditions, Verbal-Gesture-Silent (VGS) versus Silent-Gesture-Verbal (SGV). The Knowledge of response (KR) was applied as: verbal KR feedback with verbal encouragement during the verbal unit, visualization-representation of KR without verbal encouragement during the gesture unit, and no KR feedback without any encouragement during the silent unit. Three measurements were used: speech analysis, novel criteria to measure self-regulation and task performance, and a computer-based friendly chat questionnaire to measure children’s satisfaction. Forty preschool children were divided by their teachers between the two conditions equivalently. It was hypothesized that children in the VGS condition were more speech productive, manifested higher self-regulation, task performance, and satisfaction. The results showed significant differential effect on the speech intensity and manifested self-regulation with no significant differential effect on task performance and satisfaction during learning tasks. However, the results were not confirmed Vygotsky’s view as it were supported (neutralizing, at best) to Piaget’s view of self-regulation development.     

Dimensionality of Social Capital and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Information Systems Project Teams

Knowledge sharing and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) among project team members are crucial for project success due to the particularities of information systems (IS) projects. Bonding social capital is known to increase knowledge sharing and collaboration. However, the influence of bridging social capital on knowledge sharing is unclear. The interplay between bridging and bonding social capital is especially interesting in a collectivistic society such as South Korea where in-group ties are particularly strong. In this study, we examine the effect of the sub-dimensions of the above constructs (i.e., bonding, bridging, OCB) on knowledge sharing. The results suggest that bonding and citizenry behavior improves knowledge sharing. Bridging improves knowledge sharing by increasing organizational citizenry behavior. Unexpectedly, the effect of citizenship behavior on knowledge sharing differs from the effect of its sub-dimensions. Only helping others is positively related to knowledge sharing. Similarly, the sub-dimensions of bridging and bonding influence knowledge sharing and citizenship behavior differently than the first-order constructs. For example, shared team mental model positively affects OCB, but has no direct influence on knowledge sharing. Conversely, shared vision is the only sub-dimension of bridging that positively affects OCB. Thus, the results suggest that project managers should facilitate shared project vision and team mental model to encourage team members’ citizenship behavior and control the potential adverse influence of bridging social capital.     

Examining knowledge contribution from the perspective of an online identity in blogging communities

Knowledge contribution is one of the essential factors behind the success of blogging communities (BCs). This research studies knowledge contribution behavior in a BC from the perspective of knowledge contributors and their characteristics using the lens of social identity theory. Social identity theory asserts that individuals are fundamentally motivated to present or communicate their identities in everyday social life through behavior. A similar line of reasoning can be used to argue that members of a BC would also be motivated to communicate their online identities through their behavior, that is, through knowledge contribution in the BC. Specifically, this study conceptualized the online identity and examined the effects of its personal (online kindness, online social skills, and online creativity) and social aspects (BC involvement) on knowledge contribution. The data was collected using an online survey from the members of Cyworld, a popular BC in South Korea and a few other countries (members from South Korea were included in this study). The results indicate that both the personal and social aspects of online identity and their interactions significantly influenced knowledge contribution. Based on the findings, this study offers suggestions to organizers of BCs to enhance the knowledge contribution from their members.     

The role of self-construal in consumers’ electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites: A social cognitive approach

The current study reconceptualized self-construal as a social cognitive indicator of self-observation that individuals employ for developing and maintaining social relationship with others. From the social cognitive perspective, this study investigated how consumers’ self-construal can affect consumers’ electronic word of mouth (eWOM) behavior through two cognitive factors (online community engagement self-efficacy and social outcome expectations) in the context of a social networking site. This study conducted an online experiment that directed 160 participants to visit a newly created online community. The results demonstrated that consumers’ relational view became salient when the consumers’ self-construal was primed to be interdependent rather than independent. Further, the results showed that such interdependent self-construal positively influenced consumers’ eWOM behavioral intentions through their community engagement self-efficacy and their social outcome expectations.     

Sharing or Piracy? An Exploration of Downloading Behavior

This exploratory study applies and extends a new model of media attendance to examine factors that determine current levels of sharing files through peer-to-peer networks among college students, and to predict downloaders' intentions to discontinue the behavior in the future. In a multiple regression analysis, downloading activity was found to be positively related to deficient self-regulation and the expected social outcomes of downloading behavior. Downloading activity was lessened by dissatisfaction with poor quality downloads. Those who are willing to discontinue downloading are motivated by fear of punishment, but skilled and habitual downloaders were unlikely to discontinue. Normative beliefs also affected downloading. The perception that downloading was morally unacceptable was positively related to intentions to discontinue downloading, while beliefs that the behavior was morally acceptable were positively related to current downloading activity.     

Make new friends or keep the old: Gender and personality differences in social networking use

The present study examined the influence of gender and personality on individuals’ use of online social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace. Participants were 238 undergraduate students who reported being members of Facebook, MySpace, or both. Based on prior research examining online behavior, we expected that gender and scores on the Big Five personality scale would moderate online social networking behavior. The results supported our predictions. Specifically, men reported using social networking sites for forming new relationships while women reported using them more for relationship maintenance. Furthermore, women low in agreeableness reported using instant messaging features of social networking sites more often than women high in agreeableness, whereas men low in openness reported playing more games on social networking sites compared to men high in openness. Overall, these results indicate the importance of examining individual differences in online behavior.     

Learning by foraging: The impact of individual knowledge and social tags on web navigation processes

The World Wide Web provides a tremendously large quantity of information. When users search for information or products on the Web, they will presumably be inclined to choose their path of navigation on the basis of their prior knowledge. In those cases in which the prior knowledge of users is incorrect, however, this navigation process is assumed to lead to suboptimal search results. In an experimental study with 180 participants, we examined to what extent both the users’ prior knowledge and social tags - which capture the collective knowledge of a Web community in tag clouds - influenced the navigation of users and triggered incidental learning processes during the Web search. The results supported the assumption that the users’ prior knowledge is indeed crucial for navigation, as users followed those tags which corresponded to their internal associations. Moreover, we found that social tags also affected the navigation behavior of users, as a strong collective association of social tags led to a high selection rate for these tags. Finally, the results showed that social tags triggered incidental learning processes, as those internal associations which corresponded to tags with a strong collective association were strengthened during navigation. The implications of these findings for further research are discussed.     

Exploring and mitigating social loafing in online communities

The motivation to share members’ knowledge is critical to an online community’s survival and success. Previous research has established that knowledge sharing intentions are based on group cohesion. Several studies also suggested that social loafing behavior will seriously corrode group cohesion. Therefore, social loafing is a key obstacle to fostering online community development. Although substantial studies have been performed on the critical factors that affect social loafing in the learning group, those on online communities are still lacking. By integrating two perspectives, social capital and perceived risk, a richer understanding of social loafing behavior can be gained. In the research model, social ties and perceived risk have been driven by anonymity, offline activities, knowledge quality, and media richness. Social ties and perceived risk are hypothesized to affect social loafing in the online community, which, in turn, is hypothesized as negatively affecting group cohesion. Data collected from 323 online users in online communities provide support for the proposed model. The study shows that social loafing is a significant negative predictor of the users’ group cohesion. The study also shows that social ties and perceived risk are important components of social loafing. Anonymity, offline activities, knowledge quality, and media richness all have strong effects on social ties and perceived risk in the online community. Implications for theory and practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The effect of nonhuman’s external regulation on detecting the natural development process of young children’s self-regulation during learning tasks

The present study explored the effect of nonhuman’s external regulation on children’s natural development of self-regulation and the effect of each natural developed class on children’s spontaneous thinking aloud and satisfaction. The Aginian’s methodology (Agina et al., 2011a) that relied on special computer agents for the external regulation, measuring self-regulation and children’s satisfaction, and producing the final results in points was used with 40 preschool children, which were divided into classes based on their natural development of self-regulation during learning tasks. The results showed that children who followed Piagetian’s view were outperforming children who followed Vygotskyian’s view and Aginian’s view, which is a new psychological view generated by computer indicates that the child either followed unknown class of self-regulation’s natural development or the child holds an ambiguous psychological problem. The results also showed that the relationship between children’s spontaneous thinking aloud and children’s self-regulation is a reverse. The supplemental analysis showed that computer, as a nonhuman external regulator, can identify those children who hold psychological problems and can integrate the net signed of self-regulation of each child at each task through embedding the mathematics integration where the computer becomes fully conscious with all the occurrences of children’s behavioral regulation.     

Determinants of knowledge seeking in professional virtual communities

As knowledge management systems within organisations, professional virtual communities (PVCs) are popular knowledge-seeking tools, which bring together geographically dispersed members from outside of the organisations. An increasing number of employees use PVCs for knowledge seeking, knowledge exchange and problem solving at work. Why do members choose to receive knowledge from other community members in PVCs needs to be understood. This paper extends Ajzen's [1991. The theory of planned behaviour. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50 (2), 179–211] theory of planned behaviour to elicit external beliefs in terms of personal motivation, as well as technological and social factors, and to examine the relative importance of these factors. According to this study's online survey of 323 members in three PVCs, the results show that the significance of beliefs, such as system quality, compatibility, trust, knowledge growth and knowledge quality, in creating positive attitudes towards knowledge seeking. Community identification is shown as a salient belief for the subjective norms of knowledge seeking. System quality and resource availability are revealed as important determinants for perceived behavioural control of knowledge seeking. Knowledge-seeking intention is based on the attitude towards knowledge seeking and the subjective norm of knowledge seeking, whereas knowledge-seeking behaviour is solely determined by knowledge-seeking intention. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

I became an attractive person in the virtual world: Users’ identification with virtual communities and avatars

A number of studies have examined virtual worlds, which can facilitate knowledge sharing, education, and enjoyment, among others. However, no study has provided an insightful research model for evaluating virtual worlds. This study suggests that users’ identification with virtual communities and avatars plays a critical role in the construction of attractive virtual worlds. The proposed model measures the level of the user’s identification with virtual communities, through which the user builds his or her trust in other community members. In addition, the study suggests that users’ identification with avatars is an important element of their satisfaction with virtual worlds. The results indicate that users’ identification with virtual communities as well as avatars can enhance their efficacy and trust and thus facilitate their sustained use of virtual services. The results have important theoretical and practical implications.     

Changing middle-school students’ attitudes and performance regarding engineering with computer-based social models

Women’s under-representation in fields such as engineering may result in part from female students’ negative beliefs regarding these fields and their low self-efficacy for these fields. In this experiment, we investigated the use of animated interface agents as social models for changing male and female middle-school students’ attitudes toward engineering-related fields, their self-efficacy for these fields, and their math performance. Students interacted with either a female or a male computer-based agent or they did not interact with an agent. The female agent increased interest, utility beliefs, self-efficacy, and math performance compared to control and, for boys, decreased stereotyping. Mediational analyses indicated that the female agent facilitated interest and math performance by enhancing self-efficacy. The findings indicate that interface agents may be used effectively as social models for influencing attitudes and beliefs and supporting performance.     

Epistemology and learning: Impact on pedagogical practices and technology use in Singapore schools

This paper reports on two studies conducted in 2006 in the Singapore schools to investigate the relationships between teachers’ beliefs about knowledge and learning, their pedagogical practices, and uses of information and communications technologies (ICT). Three primary research questions were examined in this research: First, do teachers’ beliefs about knowledge and learning influence the uses of ICT, pedagogical approaches, and types of assessments used in the Singapore schools? Second, does the school culture influence the uses of pedagogical approaches and ICT by Singapore teachers in their classes? Third, are the epistemic ideas about the nature of knowledge and learning beliefs that are stable cognitive structures or are they resources that are more adaptively shaped to different contexts? In Study 1, 1882 teachers from 51 schools took part in the 187-item online survey on these areas, and Study 2 involved eight principals, two vice-principals, 33 heads of department, and 60 teachers in structured interviews. It had been hypothesized that beliefs about the nature of knowledge being complex and changing would be associated with more learner-centered pedagogical practices and uses of technology in the classrooms. However, the main findings of Study 1 suggest that it is not epistemological beliefs of teachers about knowledge and knowing that shape pedagogical practices in Singapore schools, but rather teachers’ beliefs about learning. From the interviews in Study 2, it appears that teachers tend to mix pedagogical strategies consisting of both teacher-directed and learner-centered approaches primarily based on beliefs about learning. Our research findings also suggest that epistemic ideas teachers have may not be relatively fixed and stable “beliefs” but rather are more contextually influenced epistemic resources. The paper concludes with a discussion of these findings and their implications for theory, practice, and future research.     

Theory and measurement of generalized problematic Internet use: A two-step approach

This study tested an updated cognitive-behavioral model of generalized problematic Internet use and reports results of a confirmatory analysis of the Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale 2 (GPIUS2). Overall, the results indicated that a preference for online social interaction and use of the Internet for mood regulation, predict deficient self-regulation of Internet use (i.e., compulsive Internet use and a cognitive preoccupation with the Internet). In turn, deficient self-regulation was a significant predictor of the extent to which one’s Internet use led to negative outcomes. Results indicated the model fit the data well and variables in the model accounted for 27% of the variance in mood regulation scores, 65% of variance in participants’ deficient self-regulation scores, and 61% of variance in the negative outcome scores.