Factors influencing students’ academic performance in universities: Mediated by knowledge sharing behavior

Abstract

Recently, using Social Network Sites has been rising noticeably, especially among young people (18 years-34 years) who compose more than 50% of Facebook users. Accordingly, university students may find Facebook familiar and easier to share knowledge. This study attempts to investigate the impact of knowledge sharing using Facebook on student performance. This study examines the effect of Technology Self-Efficacy (TS), Information Self-efficacy (IS), Social Expectations (SE), Enjoyment (EN), Size of Social Network (SN), Personal Trust (PT), and Reciprocity (REC) as main factors on students’ academic performance as mediated by knowledge sharing behavior on Facebook in Jordanian University. Accordingly, a Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) using AMOS 22 was applied to test the model and posited hypotheses. A questionnaire-based survey was designed to collect the data based on a dataset of 450 university students from various five Jordanian universities. The results indicated that TS, IS, SE, EN, SN, PT, and REC positively and significantly affect students’ academic performance. Additionally, knowledge sharing on Facebook significantly as well as positively mediated the relationship between the proposed factors and students’ academic performance. This is one of the few studies which investigate the interrelationships among the examined factors, and the first to test the model on university students in Jordan. Practically, policymakers can depend on the results to create or modify the current learning environment by introducing the usage of social networks to help in increasing academic performance. Lastly, future research could study some other social network platforms looking at gender, educational level, or region.