Developing a theoretical model on knowledge sharing behaviour in e-communities: integrating the economics, social psychology and social ecology perspectives

Virtual community was designed to organise different communities and getting people involved in creating and sharing knowledge. It was also called e-information exchange system. Bock et al. argued that the research perspectives of knowledge sharing should be classified into economics, social psychology and sociology perspectives. We present a conceptual framework based on economic, social psychology and social ecology perspective and propose a set of propositions for knowledge sharing in virtual community. Finally, we introduce punctuated equilibrium as third theoretical perspective to understand whether the factors affecting knowledge sharing may change with time.