Understanding knowledge sharing in virtual communities

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivations behind people's intentions to continue knowledge sharing (continuance intention) in open professional virtual communities.Design/methodology/approachData collected from 270 members of a professional virtual community provides partial support for the proposed model. LISREL 8.5 was used to analyse the measurement and structural models.FindingsThe results show that playfulness is critical for the community members' satisfaction and continuance intention. However, only positive self‐worth disconfirmation, distributive justice, and interactional justice can influence the satisfaction of the community members.Research limitations/implicationsThe data were collected from a single open professional community; the generalisation of the model and findings to other virtual communities requires additional research. The findings imply that justice factors appear to be important in leading to higher satisfaction levels.Practical implicationsDevelopers of virtual communities should create a more enjoyable online environment and raise the core knowledge contributors' sense of self‐worth.Originality/valueA theoretical model was constructed in which individual motivation factors, social network factors, and justice theory are integrated with expectancy disconfirmation theory to investigate the motivations behind people's continuance intention.