Paper Info
Title
Knowledge-sharing intention in professional virtual communities: A comparison between posters and lurkers
Abstract
The most significant challenge in facilitating a professional virtual community PVC is maintaining a continuous supply of knowledge from members, especially because lurkers often make up a large portion of an online community. However, we still do not understand how knowledge-sharing intention KSI is formed across poster and lurker groups. Accordingly, this study seeks to provide a fuller understanding of the formation of behavioral intention in PVCs by decomposing the psychological formation of KSI and focusing on factors deemed likely to influence the KSI of posters and lurkers. This study's online survey of 177 posters and 246 lurkers from 3 PVCs demonstrated that enjoyment in helping others positively influenced posters' attitudes toward knowledge sharing, whereas reciprocity and technology adoption variables perceived ease of use and compatibility positively influenced lurkers' attitudes. Interpersonal trust and peer influence strongly affected the subjective norm of knowledge sharing in both groups, with posters emphasizing interpersonal trust and lurkers emphasizing peer influence. Furthermore, knowledge self-efficacy and resource availability enhanced the perceived behavioral control of knowledge sharing in both groups, with knowledge self-efficacy affecting posters the most and resource availability influencing lurkers the most. The results of this study have important implications for both research and practice.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1002/asi.23339
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Keywords
DocType
Volume
knowledge
Journal
66
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
12
2330-1635
10
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.45
70
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Shin-Yuan Hung191249.10
Hui-Min Lai224510.93
Yu-Che Chou3120.80