The effect of commitment on knowledge sharing: An empirical study of virtual communities

Chuan Luo, Yao Lan, (Robert) Luo, Xin and Han Li

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2021, vol. 163, issue C

Abstract: Due to the development of social media technologies, abundant online platforms have been established to facilitate users’ knowledge exchange behaviors. With frequent user interactions, these platforms gradually evolve into virtual communities, and users subsequently form a sense of commitment. Nevertheless, previous research has ignored the effects of commitment on knowledge-sharing behaviors. This study thus endeavors to fill this research gap by exploring the effect of commitment on knowledge contributors’ sharing intentions in virtual communities in China. By integrating the commitment model and social exchange theory, we demonstrate that user commitment mediates the effect of social-exchange benefits on users’ knowledge exchange behaviors in virtual communities. Our research model is validated using 751 valid responses collected from four prevalent virtual communities through an online survey. The statistical results show that affective and normative commitment can significantly influence users’ knowledge-sharing intention. In addition, relationships, reputation, and reciprocity, as three types of social-exchange benefits, serve as crucial antecedents to user commitment. Our findings contribute to the literature on commitment and virtual communities by shedding important light on the different components of user commitment and their distinctive mediating roles in knowledge sharing.

Keywords: Knowledge-sharing intention; Commitment; Relationship; Reputation; Reciprocity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162520312646
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:163:y:2021:i:c:s0040162520312646

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120438

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().