Exploring behavioral transfer from knowledge seeking to knowledge contributing: The mediating role of intrinsic motivation

Abstract

Knowledge contributing has long been identified as a bottleneck in knowledge management since individuals tend to believe that their contributing would not be worth the effort, given high levels of expectation to receive some value in return. 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 the relationship between behavior and beliefs is one of mutual influence, we develop a research model to explore the behavioral transfer from knowledge seeking to knowledge contributing and consider the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation. Data collected from 430 users of Web 2.0 applications were used to test the model. The mediating role of intrinsic motivation between knowledge seeking and knowledge contributing is confirmed. These findings and their implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Why users contribute knowledge to online communities: An empirical study of an online social Q&A community

“…Social networks formed in social Q&A communities are based on weak ties existing between strangers, while those in enterprise knowledge management systems are mostly strong ties existing between acquaintances. In addition to enterprise knowledge management systems, many studies have focused on online Q&A communities, such as Yahoo Answers [4,49] and Baidu Knows [67]. However, the market share of this type of Q&A communities is rapidly shrinking.…”

Exploring employee perceptions of Web 2.0 virtual communities from the perspective of knowledge sharing

“…Knowledge contributing has long been recognized as a bottleneck in knowledge sharing activity since contributors tend to expect to receive some value in return (Yan and Davison, 2013). There is evidence to show that popular Chinese Web 2.0 virtual communities have invited experts to play the role of contributors at the early stage of development.…”

“…Rather, they can seize the opportunity to encourage informal knowledge sharing activity in Web 2.0 virtual communities beyond the organizational boundary. This is critical given knowledge management initiatives in practice are relatively fewer in China than in western countries even though Chinese government policy strongly encourages knowledge sharing and knowledge creation across contemporary organizations of all industries and fields (Yan and Davison, 2013).…”

“…Knowledge has long been a focus of research since knowledge represents the most valuable resources of organizations, such as operational routines, creative processes and intangible assets that are unlikely to be transferred to or shared with others through a simple copying process (Wasko and Faraj, 2005;Yan and Davison, 2013). Consequently, simply making knowledge repositories or knowledge management systems (KMS) available cannot guarantee successful knowledge sharing activities (Watson and Hewett, 2006).…”

Comparison between user affinity with digital libraries and virtual communities

“…8 Virtual communities provide informal yet useful platforms © Yalan Yan and Xianjin Zha 2014 for knowledge-sharing activity. 9 Indeed, virtual communities show much promise in 'promoting communication, collaborative authoring, and information sharing'. 10 Students have positive attitudes towards academic use of social networking sites.…”