Contributing Knowledge to Knowledge Repositories: Dual Role of Inducement and Opportunity Factors

Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) such as electronic knowledge repositories (EKR) have brought substantial changes to the way organizations leverage their knowledge resources. Despite the importance of KMS, organizations are faced with a challenge to realize the benefits of KMS. One challenging issue that has not been extensively investigated by prior KMS studies is the factors that drive employees’ usage of KMS and their willingness to contribute knowledge. This chapter posits that the drivers of KMS usage can be defined by two facets: (1) the inducement mechanism that motivates the employees to contribute knowledge and (2) the opportunity mechanism that facilitates their knowledge contribution. To examine the determinants of KMS usage, we propose a multidimensional model that forms three antecedents of inducement – rewards, power, and centrality – and three antecedents of opportunity – ease in using EKR, organizational structure and top management support. The model is tested using 180 survey responses collected from a software company. The analysis demonstrates that KMS usage is jointly determined by both the inducement and opportunity mechanisms.