Understanding knowledge management phenomena in virtual communities from a goal-directed approach

Purpose This study aims to understand the formation of knowledge management decisions, including intention for knowledge contribution and knowledge exploration. We build on the goal-directed model and a trust-based lens to develop a belief-trust-decision framework. We theorize belief as individual factors (one’s virtual skill) and environmental factors (cooperative norms, familiarity), and trust as emotional trust and cognitive trust. Individual factors represent one’s virtual skill to control knowledge exchange, while environmental factors reflect the level of support/control for this exchange by the context. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a survey method to collect data and partial least squares (PLS) to analyze them. Findings We found that knowledge management decision is affected by two types of trust, directly or indirectly. They are in turn influenced by individual factors and environmental factors. Research limitations/implications Generalizability of our findings to virtual communitie...

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