"It is what one does": why people participate and help others in electronic communities of practice

Advances in information and communication technologies have fundamentally heightened organizational interest in knowledge as a critical strategic resource. However, organizations are ®nding that members are often reluctant to exchange knowledge with others in the organization. This paper examines why. We review current knowledge management practices and ®nd that organizations are treating knowledge as a private good, owned either by the organization or by organization members. We propose that knowledge can also be considered a public good, owned and maintained by a community. When knowledge is considered a public good, knowledge exchange is motivated by moral obligation and community interest rather than by narrow self-interest. We provide support for the public good perspective by providing results from a survey examining why people participate and share knowledge in three electronic communities of practice. The results indicate that people participate primarily out of community interest, generalized reciprocity and prosocial behavior. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.