Understanding knowledge management system usage antecedents: An integration of social cognitive theory and task technology fit

Knowledge management systems (KMSs) that provide the necessary infrastructure to implement the KM process have become the backbone of the organizations. For example, employees avoid taking mistake again through KMS reuse. This issue has raised the concern of not only practitioners but also MIS research. Task technology fit (TTF) is the theory that has emerged in recent literature of KMS utilization. However, although TTF has been used to investigate what motivates employees’ KMS usage from the perspectives of information technology and organizational task, these perspectives which take deterministic viewpoints lack considerations about employees’ personal cognitions. The theory that gives prominent explanations in one’s behavior from both personal cognitions and social environment is social cognitive theory (SCT). Therefore, this study extended TTF with SCT to investigate the factors influencing KMS usage from the perspectives of information technology, organizational task, and personal cognitions. Data collected from cross industries totaled 192 samples. Partial least squares (PLS) is used to analyze our samples and the results support the propositions of TTF and SCT. In addition, our results indicate that self-efficacy plays an important role in KMS usage.