Seeking Knowledge in Electronic Knowledge Repositories: An Exploratory Study

Knowledge is a critical resource that sustains strategic advantage in highly competitive organizational environments. Many organizations are turning to knowledge management (KM) initiatives and technologies to leverage their knowledge resources. A common form of such technologies is the electronic knowledge repository (EKR). Although EKRs have been in use for some time, there has been little empirical evidence about factors that affect usage of EKRs. This exploratory study formulates and tests a theoretical model that explains seeking behavior in an EKR. The data was collected through a survey of 128 knowledge workers. Results show that technology-related factors and organization-related factors directly impact seeking behavior, while task factors play a moderating role. Implications for research and practice are discussed.