The Intention to Share: Psychological Investigation of Knowledge Sharing Behaviour in Online Communities

This research aims to provide an understanding of knowledge sharing behavior through the adaptation of two major theories imported from Social Psychology: the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TpB). Exploring knowledge sharing from a social psychological perspective provides an understanding of the process an individual goes through to make the decision to share his/her knowledge with others as well as the different psychological factors facilitating or hindering knowledge sharing behavior. Research findings are based on a web-survey of 158 group members. Proposing an extended theoretical model of knowledge sharing behavior in an online community, this research found that normative pressures, including subjective norms and descriptive norms, had a strong influence on the formation of the individual's intention to share in the online community. Knowledge sharing self-efficacy also was found to significantly account for explaining the individual's motivation to share his/her knowledge with other members. Attitude and controllability were not found to have significant impacts on the formation of intention.