Understanding User's Sustained Participation in Social Research Network sites

Recently, a new form of social network site focusing on researchers has emerged and attracted worldwide users. In addition to basic functionalities of SNSs, social research network sites (SRNS) combine multiple research-specific tools, such as knowledge management tools, citation management, and paper recommendation engines, supporting researchers to collaboratively structure, coordinate and conduct their work online. However, scholars are not interested in social networking as an end in itself, they networks to enhance productivity. The turnover rate of users remains a great challenge for the viability of SRNS. Therefore, exploring the determinants that impact members’ continued participation behavior in SRNS is critical to both scholars and practitioners. From the perspective of group commitment, we attempt to address the following two questions. First, what factors would cultivate different forms of commitment of members to a virtual group. Second, how would these different forms of commitment impact members’ continuance intention in SRNS. Based on the target-behavior commitment model, we proposed the preliminary model for understanding continued knowledge sharing (from contributing and seeking perspectives) in SRNS. The expected contribution of this study is discussed.