Investigating Moderators of the Influence of Enablers on Participation in Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Communities

Abstract

Virtual communities (VCs) are emerging as a cyberspace where active knowledge exchange between people occurs without time or space constraints. For VCs to be sustainable, a major challenge is ensuring that members voluntarily contribute and share knowledge. Therefore, many VCs provide anonymity as a means of encouraging members to participate more in knowledge-sharing activities. Given the recent prevalence of anonymity-based VCs, this study aimed to examine what has a significant impact on human behavior, such as knowledge sharing in VCs. This study focused on governance-related factors of VCs and intrinsic motivation factors of users as participation-enabling factors in VCs. Particularly, this study analyzed the differences based on two types of self-awareness (public and private) and the level of anonymity. A web-based survey was conducted to collect data and the research model was tested using structural equation modeling. The results of this study show that members’ willingness to conform to group norms, which control and govern VCs, and intrinsic motivation have significant effects on knowledge sharing in VCs, and the influence can vary depending on the type of self-awareness and level of anonymity. This study provides implications for VC management strategy and the establishment of Internet culture for sharing high-quality knowledge.