Conference Paper Sharing: Social-Psychological Perspectives

Premised on two social-psychological perspectives, the costreward theory of helping and social exchange theory, our study made one of the first attempts to explore the processes involved in online knowledge sharing among academicians. We collected data from management conference presenters (n=530) by the use of quasi-experimental approach. The results revealed that, on receiving a request to share a conference paper, academicians’ willingness and their intent to assure a fair exchange were significantly associated with costs and benefits of helping and also with perceived social norms of sharing. Only the costs of helping variables were significantly related to the intent of academicians to assure a fair exchange.