Asia pacific journal of information systems

The Korea Society of Management Information Systems (한국경영정보학회)
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The Moderating Effect of Media Synchronicity in the Communication Media Use and Knowledge Creation

  • Published : 2010.06.30
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Abstract

Social communications using information and communication technologies (ICT) for social interactions have been making a significant impact on task performance in organizations. However, most of the existing studies on ICT (e.g., telephone and email) have only focused on technical improvement of communication efficiencies (e.g., information exchange and storage). In this paper, we claim that ICT may be another alternative source of knowledge creation that enables employees to work, find solutions, and achieve their goals faster and better. We investigate the impact of ICT in terms of both tasks and social aspects with knowledge creation as task performance. Also, we investigate the moderating effect of media synchronicity on these relationships. This study contributes to the understanding of contemporary communications media usage and its performance in organizations. We collected and analyzed survey data of 248 company employees, using PLS. The results indicate that task urgency and social influence directly affect ICT usage, and even knowledge creation. Also the media synchronicity moderates the relationship between the characteristics of a given task and ICT usage and the relationship between ICT usage and knowledge creation. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are also discussed in the paper.

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