Towards a contingency model of knowledge sharing: interaction between social capital and social exchange theories

This paper develops a contingency model to examine whether the impact of costs and benefits (derived from social exchange theory) are contingent upon factors related to the social context, such as norms and generalized trust (derived from social capital theory) in virtual communities. In general, the results suggest that costs negatively affected one’s intention to share knowledge, whereas benefits positively affect one’s intention to share knowledge. Particularly, while the effort of knowledge sharing has a direct effect on one’s intention to share knowledge, the effect of loss of knowledge power is contingent upon pro-sharing norms. While two intrinsic benefits (enjoyment in helping others and social affiliation) have direct effects on one’s intention to share knowledge, the impact of the extrinsic benefit (i.e., online status seeking) is contingent upon prosharing norms. Generalized trust has also the potential to moderate the impact of online status seeking on one’s intention to share knowledge.