• 한국IT서비스학회지
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.119-129
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• 2013

The degree to which people share knowledge has major impacts on the effectiveness of virtual community of practice (VCoP). As an extension to the previous study which investigated the effect of individual cooperative types (cooperator, reciprocator, and free rider) on knowledge sharing, it is investigated how much increase in the degree of cooperation will enhance knowledge sharing when there are more knowledge contributors and strong ties exist across the community. Simulation method is adopted to measure the effect of the cooperative type and tie strength on knowledge sharing. The results reveal that the tie strength positively affects knowledge contribution in VCoP and strongly tied VCoP generates equivalent level of knowledge contribution as that of weakly-tied VCoP with 5% more contributors.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.53-74
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• 2012

A challenge in fostering virtual communities is the continuous supply of knowledge, namely members' willingness to contribute knowledge to their communities. Previous research argues that giving away knowledge eventually causes the possessors of that knowledge to lose their unique value to others, benefiting all except the contributor. Furthermore, communication within virtual communities involves a large number of participants with different social backgrounds and perspectives. The establishment of mutual understanding to comprehend conversations and foster knowledge contribution in virtual communities is inevitably more difficult than face-to-face communication in a small group. In spite of these arguments, evidence suggests that individuals in virtual communities do engage in social behaviors such as knowledge contribution. It is important to understand why individuals provide their valuable knowledge to other community members without a guarantee of returns. In virtual communities, knowledge is inherently rooted in individual members' experiences and expertise. This personal nature of knowledge requires social interactions between virtual community members for knowledge transfer. This study employs the social capital theory in order to account for interpersonal relationship factors and identity theory for individual and group factors that may affect knowledge contribution. First, social capital is the relationship capital which is embedded within the relationships among the participants in a network and available for use when it is needed. Social capital is a productive resource, facilitating individuals' actions for attainment. Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1997) identify three dimensions of social capital and explain theoretically how these dimensions affect the exchange of knowledge. Thus, social capital would be relevant to knowledge contribution in virtual communities. Second, existing research has addressed the importance of identity in facilitating knowledge contribution in a virtual context. Identity in virtual communities has been described as playing a vital role in the establishment of personal reputations and in the recognition of others. For instance, reputation systems that rate participants in terms of the quality of their contributions provide a readily available inventory of experts to knowledge seekers. Despite the growing interest in identities, however, there is little empirical research about how identities in the communities influence knowledge contribution. Therefore, the goal of this study is to better understand knowledge contribution by examining the roles of social capital and identity in virtual communities. Based on a theoretical framework of social capital and identity theory, we develop and test a theoretical model and evaluate our hypotheses. Specifically, we propose three variables such as cohesiveness, reciprocity, and commitment, referring to the social capital theory, as antecedents of knowledge contribution in virtual communities. We further posit that members with a strong identity (self-presentation and group identification) contribute more knowledge to virtual communities. We conducted a field study in order to validate our research model. We collected data from 192 members of virtual communities and used the PLS method to analyse the data. The tests of the measurement model confirm that our data set has appropriate discriminant and convergent validity. The results of testing the structural model show that cohesion, reciprocity, and self-presentation significantly influence knowledge contribution, while commitment and group identification do not significantly influence knowledge contribution. Our findings on cohesion and reciprocity are consistent with the previous literature. Contrary to our expectations, commitment did not significantly affect knowledge contribution in virtual communities. This result may be due to the fact that knowledge contribution was voluntary in the virtual communities in our sample. Another plausible explanation for this result may be the self-selection bias for the survey respondents, who are more likely to contribute their knowledge to virtual communities. The relationship between self-presentation and knowledge contribution was found to be significant in virtual communities, supporting the results of prior literature. Group identification did not significantly affect knowledge contribution in this study, inconsistent with the wealth of research that identifies group identification as an important factor for knowledge sharing. This conflicting result calls for future research that examines the role of group identification in knowledge contribution in virtual communities. This study makes a contribution to theory development in the area of knowledge management in general and virtual communities in particular. For practice, the results of this study identify the circumstances under which individual factors would be effective for motivating knowledge contribution to virtual communities.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.183-203
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• 2006

Firms are increasingly adopting online communities-of-practice (CoPs) with strong managerial support in hopes of promoting knowledge sharing and creation within the organization. Excessive managerial concern and sponsoring, however, could harm the spontaneity of CoP participants, which is one of the pivotal characteristics of virtual communities, and in the end, have negative impact on their smooth operation. In this regard, this study examines the factors which affect the stimulation of CoPs and explores the difference in their operating mechanisms under two differing organizational structural settings by the existence of a sponsor. By analyzing 133 samples of CoPs in a globally leading company, this study found that the existence of a sponsor designated by the organization, has serious influence on the working of CoPs, That is, leaders' enthusiasm and the level of off-line activities are critical factors for the stimulation of CoPs which have no sponsor, while in case of CoPs that have their sponsors, neither leaders' enthusiasm nor the level of off-line activities are significantly related to the stimulation of CoPs. At the same time, the performance of CoPs which have their sponsors was found significantly higher than that of CoPs which have no sponsor. These results indicate that firms need to pay special attention to organizational sponsorship when introducing CoPs within their organizations.

• 한국콘텐츠학회논문지
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• 제10권8호
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• pp.360-369
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• 2010

본 연구는 온라인 커뮤니티에서 개인의 프라이버시 염려와 자아불일치 및 커뮤니티의 공동체 의식과의 관계를 고찰해 보고자 한 것이었다. 먼저, 개인의 프라이버시 염려가 자아불일치에 미치는 영향을 살펴보고, 인터넷 사용기간의 조절효과를 분석해 보기로 하였다. 기존 연구를 기반으로 하여 본 연구에서 사용된 개인의 프라이버시 염려 요인은 정보에 대한 수집, 통제, 인식을 고려하였으며, 커뮤니티에 대한 공동체 의식 요인은 소속감과 몰입감을 고려하였다. 온라인 커뮤니티 이용자를 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였으며, 조절효과를 검정하기 위해 계층적 회귀분석을 이용하였다. 연구 결과, 프라이버시 염려 중 정보에 대한 수집, 통제, 인식의 요인 중 인식의 요인만이 자아불일치에 부(-)의 영향을 주는 것으로 조사되었다. 이때 인터넷 사용기간은 정보의 인식 및 통제가 자아불일치에 주는 영향력을 조절하는 요인인 것으로 조사되었다. 다음으로, 온라인과 오프라인에서의 자아불일치가 커뮤니티에 대한 소속감과 몰입감에 미치는 영향을 분석한 결과, 자아불일치가 소속감에는 부(-)의 영향을 주지만, 몰입감에는 영향을 주지 않는 것으로 나타났다.

• 지식경영연구
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.89-108
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• 2015

Social networking communities (SNCs) are media designed to facilitate social interaction using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. SNCs can constitute individuals' their own profiles in the online environment and share texts, images and photos in a variety ways. In other words, one of the other motivators is knowledge sharing. Various sites, such as Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, and Hi5 are categorized as SNCs. SNCs have become increasingly popular in recent years among youths, especially students, who use them to build social networks. This study examines whether this usage of SNCs inculcates a sense of community among their members. Several studies have examined the role of a sense of community through increased usage in the context of virtual communities. Although this result may be true of virtual communities, this paper contends that the opposite relationship prevails in the case of SNCs because members interact to build networks and are not obliged to interact. The results reveal that maintaining long-term interactions in the SNCs is helpful in building a sense of community in SNCs. Although short-term usage may not boost the development of a sense of community in SNCs, it does matter if the premise is for a long-term commitment to SNCs. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.83-98
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• 2021

Research collaboration is an important strategy to improve research output, and virtual academic communities (VACs) have become an important platform to collaborate on. This paper reveals the influencing factors of researchers' collaboration intention in VACs from two attributes: individual, and inter-members. On the basis of the Social Cognitive Theory, Social Exchange Theory, social network theory, and Five-Factor Model, this paper constructed a model demonstrating the influencing factors of VACs researchers' collaboration intention. A self-administered questionnaire was employed on members of four VACs in China to collect data; subsequently, 558 usable responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The result showed that openness, conscientiousness, reciprocity, trust, and the social network characteristic had a significant influence on the collaboration intention of researchers in VACs, while self-efficacy, agreeableness, extroversion, neuroticism, and experience had no significant effects on the collaboration intention of researchers in VACs. This model plays a positive role in promoting the research collaboration intention of Chinese VACs researchers and in guiding the construction of VAC platforms.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.107-116
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• 2018

The aim of this study is to delve deeper into the online brand community study. This study tests (a) the effects of online brand community on its outcomes, (b) the impact of value creation practice construct as a whole, (c) the effects of value creating practice construct on the two types of loyalty, loyalty toward the brand and the community. Participants of this study (N=353) are members of four types of online brand communities (e.g., business-to-consumer virtual product support community, firm-hosted online community, user-generated online community, peer-to-peer problem-solving community, and social media based brand community). Data were collected online using Amazon Mechanical Turk from April 10, 2016 to May 10, 2016. The data were analyzed through structural equations modeling using AMOS 20. The three community markers (e.g., consciousness of kind, rituals and traditions, and moral responsibility) and the four value creation practices (e.g., social networking, impression management, community engagement, and brand use) are proved to be significant indicators of online brand community and value creation practice constructs, respectively. Test results showed that strong and effective online brand communities generate value creation practices, and value creation practices enhance brand loyalty. The mediating effects of community loyalty between value creation practices and brand loyalty were revealed.

• 지식경영연구
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.149-168
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• 2005

Owing to the limits of IT System-driven knowledge management(KM) for innovation processes, alternative KM methods has been suggested such as: (1) the knowledge network of experts or (2) communities-of-practice. This study analyzes two cases in terms of on-line expert knowledge networks for problem-solving, with the dimensions of analysis based on a theoretical framework. By analyzing the cases of S company's expert network and Naver's Ji-sik-iN, we found that system quality(e.g., ease of use, accessibility, and searching function), information/knowledge quality(e.g., usefulness, accuracy, and timeliness), knowledge-sharing culture, social capital and relevant reward systems are important for stimulating a Q&A-based problem-solving knowledge network. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

• 한국전자거래학회지
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.217-241
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• 2015

온라인 커뮤니티 구성원들의 참여를 독려하고 비행을 막기 위해 어느 수준의 익명성을 보장하여야 하는지에 대한 연구가 시급하다. 그러나, 선행연구들은 익명성의 개념이나 구분에 대한 체계적인 연구를 진행하지 못하였을 뿐만 아니라, 온라인 커뮤니티의 가상 팀 활동에 익명성이 어떠한 영향을 미칠 수 있는지에 대한 연구가 부족하였다. 본 연구에서는 익명성의 개념 및 효과에 대한 선행연구를 종합하고, 익명성을 1) 실명(무익명), 2) 별명(부분 익명), 3) 임의의 숫자 아이디를 임시로 부여(완전 익명)의 세 가지 수준으로 구분하였다. 이러한 익명성의 차이가 온라인 커뮤니티 구성원들의 신뢰 및 인지된 신원 노출 위험에 영향을 미침으로써, 결과적으로 가상 팀 성과에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지를 실증적으로 검증하였다. 실험실 실험이 수행되었으며, 온라인 커뮤니티의 실제 모습을 반영하기 위해 정착된 커뮤니티의 가상 팀 상황을 만들어 자료를 수집하였다. 총 364개의 응답이 수집된 가운데, ANOVA와 PLS를 활용하여 자료를 분석하였다. 연구 결과, 실명과 별명을 부여한 익명성 집단간 차이는 유의하지 않았으며, 임의의 아이디를 임시로 부여하였던 집단만이 인지된 익명성에 유의한 차이를 보였다. 동시에 익명성의 효과는 정착된 커뮤니티의 가상 팀 상황에서는 신뢰, 인지된 위험에 유의한 영향을 미치지 못하는 것으로 조사되었다. 이러한 연구 결과는 온라인 커뮤니티 실무에서 보다 전략적인 커뮤니티 구성원의 익명성 보호 전략을 수립하는데 도움을 줄 수 있을 것으로 판단한다.

• 한국산학기술학회논문지
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• 제15권11호
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• pp.6502-6508
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• 2014

학습공동체는 지식의 효율적 공유를 위해서 다양한 분야에서 강조되고 있다. 학습공동체의 중요성과 이의 활성화에 대한 연구는 많이 이루어지고 있다. 그러나 학습공동체를 평가하고 전략을 제시하고자 하는 연구는 거의 이루어지지 않고 있다. 학습공동체를 평가하고자 하는 연구는 이루어지고 있을지라도 단순 평가가 전략을 제시하는 수준으로는 이어지지 않고 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 학습공동체를 지식흐름을 토대로 진단하고 이를 토대로 전략을 제시하고자 한다. 교육기관에서는 지식의 전이와 공유를 위해서 학습공동체를 다양한 형태로써 활용하고 있다. 지식흐름을 진단하기 위한 프레임워크를 사회연결망분석을 기반으로 제시하고, 이를 교육기관에 적용함으로써 본 연구의 적용가능성 및 유용성을 검증하고자 한다.