Social factors' influences on corporate wiki acceptance and use

Abstract

This study investigates how social factors affect the use of corporate wikis to share knowledge in organizations. Adopting a holistic approach, the study fills the gap in research on social factors' influence on collaborative knowledge sharing. The study thereby identifies relevant factors for successful knowledge sharing using Web 2.0 tools. Building on research into knowledge sharing, technology adoption, and social theories, this study explores the following social factors: social influence (i.e., subjective norm, social identity, and group norm), social anxiety, and perceived critical mass. The research model explains how these variables affect two knowledge sharing behaviors: knowledge acquisition and knowledge creation/diffusion. Results show that social influence—mainly subjective norm—and attitude toward collaborative knowledge sharing predict intention to use corporate wikis, and that perceived critical mass affects both knowledge sharing behaviors but social anxiety does not. Perceived critical mass is the most important predictor of knowledge sharing behaviors.