Personality traits and knowledge sharing behavior in social media: mediating role of trust and subjective well-being

Abstract

Purpose Over the past decade, social media have significantly changed the way people communicate and interact with one another, which might result in positive or negative consequences. Every day, people use these technologies to share knowledge in the form of short messages, articles, images, videos and voice. Universities use social media to better connect the learners and educational communities. Previous studies have reported the positive impact of using social media by students to share knowledge. Despite the significance of social media usage in educational activities, there still remain limitations. Few studies have empirically investigated drivers related to knowledge sharing behavior in social media, and there are some inconsistent findings concerning effective factors. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effect of personality traits on knowledge sharing behavior in social media among students by the mediating role of trust and subjective well-being (SWB). Design/methodology/approach To obtain this aim, cross-sectional survey was conducted. Convenience sampling technique was used to select the sample of 527 Iranian students, out of which 425 were used in the final analysis. Regression analysis and bootstrap method were used to test the research hypotheses. Findings The research findings revealed that the big five personality traits are associated with SWB, perceived trust and knowledge sharing behavior among students. With the exception of conscientiousness trait, all the traits used in this study lead to a significant change of the knowledge sharing behavior among students. Practical implications The findings offer further understanding about the mechanisms by which personality traits lead to knowledge sharing behavior through trust and SWB. They suggest the students to enhance personality profile and improve SWB for the benefit of these new educational platforms. Also, policymakers are encouraged to create trustworthy social media platforms to increase perceived trust and eventually knowledge sharing behavior among students. Originality/value Little is known about the effect of personality traits, as well as trust and SWB on knowledge sharing behavior among students. The study contributes to the related literature through empirically indicating how personality traits influence knowledge sharing behavior by the mediating role of trust and SWB.

Managing knowledge workers in healthcare context: role of individual and knowledge characteristics in physicians' knowledge sharing

“…The previous related studies also reported a negative relationship between neuroticism and the intention to share knowledge (e.g. Pour and Taheri, 2019).…”

“…Because extravert individuals tend to experience positive emotions and are sociable, talkative, outgoing, and active, they are more likely to have warm and interpersonal relationships (Tidwell and Sias, 2005;Wang, 2010). Introvert people, on the other hand, avoid close relationships and have a tendency toward passivity, shyness, and withdrawal (McCrae and Costa, 2003;Pour and Taheri, 2019). Within the context of knowledge sharing, prior studies have found that extravert individuals show more activeness in knowledge sharing activities and are keen to participate (Gupta, 2008;Teh et al, 2011;Lotfi et al, 2016;Agyemang et al, 2016).…”

“…Prior studies argued that individuals who score high in openness to experience traits are more open-minded and willing to try new and different things. In the contrast, individuals who exhibit low levels in this dimension are more cautious, conservative, and tend to feel uncomfortable with the new changes (Pour and Taheri, 2019). A study by Cabrera et al (2006) discovered a significant relationship between openness to experience and knowledge exchange among individuals.…”

“…While recent studies have placed more emphasis on individual factors and personal knowledge sharing (e.g. Pour and Taheri, 2019;Manaf, 2020), empirical work related to the role of individual characteristics in the sharing of knowledge in a healthcare context is lacking.…”

Organizational identification and knowledge sharing behavior: Mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior and moderating role of collectivism and leader–member exchange

“…To test the mediating role of OCB in the relationship between OI and KSB and moderating role of collectivism and LMX in the OI and KSB relationship, we used Hayes PROCESS macro version 3.3 in SPSS (Hayes, 2017). PROCESS macro is widely used to test mediation and moderation in recent studies (Jami Pour & Taheri, 2019). The results of the mediation analysis are shown in Table 3.…”