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Social capital and knowledge contribution in online user communities : One-way or two-way relationship?

Yan, Jie ; Leidner, Dorothy E. LU ; Benbya, Hind and Zou, Weifei (2019) In Decision Support Systems 127.
Abstract

Firms have been increasingly relying on online user communities to access external, distant knowledge and expertise. Previous research on online user communities has largely investigated the influence of users' social capital on their knowledge sharing behavior. In this study, we propose a two-way relationship between social capital and knowledge contribution of users in online user communities. To test our proposition, we collected and analyzed participation data of 1766 users from the online user community of BMC, a global leader in innovative software solutions. Overall, our study shows evidence of significant bi-directional relationships between social capital (structural, cognitive and relational) and knowledge contribution, while... (More)

Firms have been increasingly relying on online user communities to access external, distant knowledge and expertise. Previous research on online user communities has largely investigated the influence of users' social capital on their knowledge sharing behavior. In this study, we propose a two-way relationship between social capital and knowledge contribution of users in online user communities. To test our proposition, we collected and analyzed participation data of 1766 users from the online user community of BMC, a global leader in innovative software solutions. Overall, our study shows evidence of significant bi-directional relationships between social capital (structural, cognitive and relational) and knowledge contribution, while the bi-directional relationships mainly exist among peripheral participants. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our study for the online user community literature as well as the broader context of online community.

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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Granger causality, Knowledge contribution, Online user communities, Social capital, Two-way relationship
in
Decision Support Systems
volume
127
article number
113131
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85071320043
ISSN
0167-9236
DOI
10.1016/j.dss.2019.113131
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d733a7c0-00fa-42bd-9d6d-7ec623212208
date added to LUP
2019-09-12 12:03:17
date last changed
2022-04-26 05:11:44
@article{d733a7c0-00fa-42bd-9d6d-7ec623212208,
  abstract     = {{<p>Firms have been increasingly relying on online user communities to access external, distant knowledge and expertise. Previous research on online user communities has largely investigated the influence of users' social capital on their knowledge sharing behavior. In this study, we propose a two-way relationship between social capital and knowledge contribution of users in online user communities. To test our proposition, we collected and analyzed participation data of 1766 users from the online user community of BMC, a global leader in innovative software solutions. Overall, our study shows evidence of significant bi-directional relationships between social capital (structural, cognitive and relational) and knowledge contribution, while the bi-directional relationships mainly exist among peripheral participants. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our study for the online user community literature as well as the broader context of online community.</p>}},
  author       = {{Yan, Jie and Leidner, Dorothy E. and Benbya, Hind and Zou, Weifei}},
  issn         = {{0167-9236}},
  keywords     = {{Granger causality; Knowledge contribution; Online user communities; Social capital; Two-way relationship}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Decision Support Systems}},
  title        = {{Social capital and knowledge contribution in online user communities : One-way or two-way relationship?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2019.113131}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.dss.2019.113131}},
  volume       = {{127}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}