The Effects of Network Ties on Relational Social Capital and Knowledge Contribution in Virtual Local Community

It is widely established that the levels of generalized trust, norms of reciprocity, and identification collectively known as relational social capital in a virtual community have a positive effect on a member's motivation to contribute knowledge in the community. However, little is known on the antecedents of such relational social capital. This study longitudinally investigates the effects of the strength of network ties on the development of relational social capital in a virtual local community in a Southeast Asia country. It also empirically validates the relationship between relational social capital and actual knowledge contribution. Analyzing 98 community members, the author found that the formation of weak ties is significant on the members' sense of identification with the community, which in turn positively affects their volume of knowledge contributed in the community.

[1]  Margaret A. Peteraf,et al.  GETTING TO KNOW YOU: A THEORY OF STRATEGIC GROUP IDENTITY , 1997, Strategic Management Journal.

[2]  M. Karasawa,et al.  Toward an assessment of social identity: the structure of group identification and its effects on in-group evaluations. , 1991, The British journal of social psychology.

[3]  Walter W. Powell.  Trust-Based Forms of Governance , 1996 .

[4]  Mark S. Granovetter.  The Strength of Weak Ties , 1973, American Journal of Sociology.

[5]  Mark S. Granovetter.  T H E S T R E N G T H O F WEAK TIES: A NETWORK THEORY REVISITED , 1983 .

[6]  Dimitrina S. Dimitrova,et al.  Computer Networks as Social Networks: Collaborative Work, Telework, and Virtual Community , 1996 .

[7]  Won-Seok Yoo,et al.  Exploring the Factors Enhancing Member Participation in Virtual Communities , 2002, J. Glob. Inf. Manag..

[8]  J. Bloodgood,et al.  Citizenship Behavior and The Creation of Social Capital in Organizations , 2002 .

[9]  S. Szreter,et al.  The state of social capital: Bringing back in power, politics, and history , 2002 .

[10]  Ray Reagans,et al.  Network Structure and Knowledge Transfer: The Effects of Cohesion and Range , 2003 .

[11]  Paul A. Pavlou,et al.  Building Effective Online Marketplaces with Institution-Based Trust , 2004, Inf. Syst. Res..

[12]  R. Burt.  The contingent value of social capital. , 1997 .

[13]  P. V. Marsden,et al.  Measuring Tie Strength , 1984 .

[14]  M. Macy,et al.  The evolution of trust and cooperation between strangers: A computational model. , 1998 .

[15]  B. Hunter.  Building Virtual Communities: Learning in the Virtual Community Depends upon Changes in Local Communities , 2002 .

[16]  Richard R. Lau,et al.  Individual and Contextual Influences on Group Identification , 1989 .

[17]  Carrie R. Leana,et al.  Organizational Social Capital and Employment Practices , 1999 .

[18]  Morten T. Hansen,et al.  The Search-Transfer Problem: The Role of Weak Ties in Sharing Knowledge across Organization Subunits , 1999 .

[19]  C. Hardy,et al.  Discourse and Collaboration: The Role of Conversations and Collective Identity , 2005 .

[20]  S. Kiesler,et al.  The kindness of strangers: on the usefulness of electronic weak ties for technical advice , 1996 .

[21]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage , 1998 .

[22]  Tamás Nepusz,et al.  Measuring tie-strength in virtual social networks , 2006 .

[23]  J. Coleman.  Foundations of Social Theory , 1990 .

[24]  Daniel Z. Levin,et al.  The Strength of Weak Ties You Can Trust: The Mediating Role of Trust in Effective Knowledge Transfer , 2004, Manag. Sci..

[25]  Katherine J. Stewart,et al.  Special Issue: Trust in an Organizational Context: Trust Transfer on the World Wide Web , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[26]  B. Kogut,et al.  Social Capital, Structural Holes and the Formation of an Industry Network , 1997 .

[27]  M. Woolcock.  Social capital and economic development: Toward a theoretical synthesis and policy framework , 1998 .

[28]  P. Dorfman,et al.  Leadership and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies , 2004 .

[29]  Dean M. Behrens,et al.  Redundant governance structures: an analysis of structural and relational embeddedness in the steel and semiconductor industries , 2000 .

[30]  T. Lyson,et al.  Community Organizing: Building Social Capital as a Development Strategy , 1998 .

[31]  R. Collins.  On the Microfoundations of Macrosociology , 1981, American Journal of Sociology.

[32]  Stephen O. Murray,et al.  Strong Ties and Job Information , 1981 .

[33]  D. Hamilton,et al.  Perceiving persons and groups. , 1996, Psychological review.

[34]  Daniel J. Brass,et al.  The Role of Instrumental and Expressive Social Ties in Employees' Perceptions of Organizational Justice , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[35]  R. Dawes,et al.  Swift Neighbors and Persistent Strangers: A Cross‐Cultural Investigation of Trust and Reciprocity in Social Exchange1 , 2002, American Journal of Sociology.

[36]  T. Yamagishi,et al.  Trust and commitment in the United States and Japan , 1994 .

[37]  Fred A. Mael,et al.  Social identity theory and the organization , 1989 .

[38]  Terri L. Griffith,et al.  Information processing in traditional, hybrid, and virtual teams: From nascent knowledge to transactive memory , 1999 .

[39]  Samer Faraj,et al.  Why Should I Share? Examining Social Capital and Knowledge Contribution in Electronic Networks of Practice , 2005, MIS Q..

[40]  R. Bagozzi,et al.  Intentional social action in virtual communities , 2002 .

[41]  Atreyi Kankanhalli,et al.  Contributing Knowledge to Electronic Knowledge Repositories: An Empirical Investigation , 2005, MIS Q..

[42]  Matthew K. O. Lee,et al.  Trust in Internet Shopping: Instrument Development and Validation through Classical and Modern Approaches , 2001, J. Glob. Inf. Manag..

[43]  R. Putnam,et al.  Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. , 1994 .