Personality traits and knowledge sharing in online communities

Tanja Jadin, Timo Gnambs, Bernad Batinic

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

119 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Adopting diffusion theory and the concept of social value orientation, the effects of personality traits on knowledge sharing in a virtual open content community are investigated. In addition to the main effects of personality, it was hypothesized that intrinsic motivations would moderate the effects on knowledge sharing. A sample of N = 256 active users of Wikipedia provided measures of personality, motivation, and knowledge sharing. Latent regression analyses support the notion that authorship of Wikipedia is associated with higher levels of trendsetting and a prosocial value orientation. Moreover, moderation analyses demonstrate that the effect of the latter is moderated by individual differences in motivations to write. Differences with regard to opinion leadership could not be confirmed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)210-216
Number of pages7
JournalComputers in Human Behavior
Volume29
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2013

Keywords

  • Online Community
  • Motivation
  • Wikipedia
  • Personality traits
  • Knowledge Sharing
  • Online community
  • Knowledge sharing
  • Values
  • Personality

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