Why Do People Hide Knowledge in the Online Knowledge Community? An Integrated Framework of Protection Motivation, Self-Determination, and Social Exchange Beliefs

Qin Yang,Young-Chan Lee

doi:10.3390/su13179885

Qin Yang, Young-Chan Lee

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179885

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Sep 2, 2021
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Dongguk University, Jiaxing University

Abstract

Suppressing knowledge hiding is a prerequisite for achieving positive knowledge interactions among people. Most previous studies concentrate on knowledge hiding in organizations, but the quantitative examination of knowledge hiding antecedents in the online knowledge community has been limited. This study investigates individuals’ knowledge hiding intentions in the context of the online knowledge community through an integrated framework of protection motivation theory, self-determination theory, and social exchange beliefs. We tested the research model through a valid sample of 377 respondents from Chinese online knowledge community users. The results demonstrate that individuals’ threat appraisal (perceived severity and perceived vulnerability) and intrinsic motivation (perceived autonomy and perceived relatedness) are negatively associated with interdependence. Additionally, interdependence within the online knowledge community is proved to negatively affect individuals’ knowledge hiding intention. Furthermore, reciprocity and trust moderate the relationship between interdependence and knowledge hiding intentions. This study enriches the academic literature in the knowledge hiding field, and the findings provide an in-depth understanding of knowledge hiding in the context of the online knowledge community.

Highlights

To fill the research gap mentioned above, we propose an integrated research framework of protection motivation theory (PMT), self-determination theory (SDT), and social exchange beliefs to provide a novel explanation for knowledge hiding intentions in OKCs
This study proposes intrinsic motivations such as perceived autonomy, perceived competence, and perceived relatedness to foster interdependence within OKCs
PMT, SDT, and social exchange beliefs, this study proposes an integrated frameUsing PMT, SDT, and social exchange beliefs, this study proposes an integrated work to examine people’s knowledge hiding intentions in the framework to examine people’s knowledge hiding intentions in the OKC

Summary

Introduction

The online knowledge community (hereafter ‘OKC’) provides users with various sources of knowledge. With the fast and continued advancement of information and communication technology, the OKC has become a convenient medium empowering users to share and grow the world’s knowledge [1]. Online knowledge communities (hereafter ‘OKCs’) such as Quora (http://www.quora.com/ accessed on 6 June 2021), Zhihu (http://www.zhihu.com/ accessed on 6 June 2021), etc., have drastically changed knowledge transfer. The lack of knowledge sharing rewards (e.g., economic incentives), the absence of feedback for knowledge sharing from other users, knowledge infringements, individual traits, personal concerns, etc., lead to knowledge hiding in OKCs [1,4,5,6]. A growing number of users are inclined to hide knowledge rather than share knowledge in OKCs

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