The Role of Citizenship Behaviors and Social Capital in Virtual Communities

Abstract

This study proposes that organizational citizenship behaviors and social capital are influencing factors on knowledge-sharing in virtual communities, and it empirically tests these factors. The research model posits that the five dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior — altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy, and civic virtue — influence social capital facets. In turn, the facets of social capital — social interaction ties, trust, norm of reciprocity, identification and, shared goals — influence members' knowledge-sharing intentions and knowledge quality in virtual communities. The model was empirically analyzed by structural equation modeling with respect to data from 424 users of virtual communities.The results showed that social interaction ties and identification of social capital have a strong impact on members' knowledge-sharing intentions and knowledge quality in virtual communities. Additionally, most of the organizational citizenship behavior dimensions have a significant impact on the facets of social capital in virtual communities.