Assessing Effects of Media Affordances and Information Security Awareness on Knowledge Sharing in Global Software Development

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of media affordances and information security awareness on knowledge sharing behavior among global software development (GSD) team members. Using survey data collected from 214 GSD team members, we identify the three organizational media affordances based on prior affordance literature: awareness, searchability, and editability. Positive relationships are found between perceived media affordances and actualized media affordances. We further find that two actualized affordances, awareness and editability, have significant relationships to knowledge sharing behavior, and these relationships are moderated by awareness of information security. Additional analysis indicates that occupational culture caused by region affects some relationships among media affordances and knowledge sharing behavior. This study contributes to the media affordance literature by identifying the organizational media affordances related to knowledge sharing behavior and showing that the effects of these media affordances on knowledge sharing are moderated by users’ awareness of information security.