The mediating role of trust and commitment on members' continuous knowledge sharing intention: A commitment-trust theory perspective

Although continuous knowledge sharing behaviour is acknowledged as important by scholars, the understanding of what influence this continuous behaviour remains limited. Thus, this paper fills the gap by examining the mediating role of identification trust and affective commitment on members’ continuous knowledge sharing intention within business online communities. 220 experienced online community members participated in the web survey. Structural equation modelling technique is used to analyze the data together with Baron and Kenny’s (1986) mediating analysis procedure. The research findings reveal that, besides user’s level of satisfaction, continuous knowledge sharing intention is partially mediated by affective commitment and identification trust. This paper ends by providing some insights on how to encourage continuous knowledge sharing intention within business online communities from the perspective of commitment-trust theory. Understanding the determinants of this behaviour is important as it helps to build an active community and also provides the opportunities for consumers to channel their ideas and suggestions in co-creating the products in which they are interested in. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.