Establishing Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Community through Trust, Self-efficacy and IS Success Model

Evaluation of the success of professional virtual communities (VCs) has been the focus of many organizations. However, there are still few empirical studies conducted to examine online knowledge sharing behavior that has been thought as the most important element for VC success. In this study, by integrating two schools of thoughts (trust theory and self-efficacy expectation) with IS Success Model, this study proposed a successful model of professional VC from both the environmental influences and personal cognitive factors. Eleven research hypotheses derived from this integrated model are then evaluated by structural equation modeling using a field survey of 274 complete questionnaires of nine types of VCs. The results indicated that knowledge sharing behavior is influenced by intention to share knowledge, knowledge sharing self-efficacy, and affective-based trust.