Darwinism, Hofstede, and Collective Intelligence

Distinct types of collective intelligence are prominent over different countries. This study explores why some types of collective intelligence knowledge services flourish in some countries but not in others by employing an analogy related to Darwin’s evolutionary theory. This study uses geographical isolation theory and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory (such as the uncertainty avoidance index) to explain dominant collective intelligence knowledge services across countries. This study proposes that uncertainty avoidance moderates relationships between four motivations (intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, internal self-concept-based motivation, and external self-concept-based motivation) as well as knowledge-sharing behavior in different knowledge-sharing types (encyclopedia type and Q&A type). An online survey of 214 collective intelligence knowledge service authors was conducted to test the research model. This study’s results show that uncertainty avoidance affected knowledge-sharing behavior, which is the different forms that authors in different knowledge-sharing types use to share their knowledge.