Understanding knowledge sharing in virtual communities

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivations behind people's intentions to continue knowledge sharing (continuance intention) in open professional virtual communities. Design/methodology/approach -Data collected from 270 members of a professional virtual community provides partial support for the proposed model. LISREL 8.5 was used to analyse the measurement and structural models. Findings -The results show that playfulness is critical for the community members' satisfaction and continuance intention. However, only positive self-worth disconfirmation, distributive justice, and interactional justice can influence the satisfaction of the community members.Research limitations/implications -The data were collected from a single open professional community; the generalisation of the model and findings to other virtual communities requires additional research. The findings imply that justice factors appear to be important in leading to higher satisfaction levels. Practical implications -Developers of virtual communities should create a more enjoyable online environment and raise the core knowledge contributors' sense of self-worth. Originality/value -A theoretical model was constructed in which individual motivation factors, social network factors, and justice theory are integrated with expectancy disconfirmation theory to investigate the motivations behind people's continuance intention.

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