IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/igg/rmj000/v32y2019i2p1-27.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Symbolic Convergence Perspective for Examining Employee Knowledge Sharing Behaviors in Company-Hosted Virtual Communities

Author

Listed:
  • Wei-Tsong Wang

    (Department of Industrial and Information Management, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan)

  • Hui-Hsiang Hung

    (National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan)

Abstract

This article investigates individual knowledge sharing behaviors (KSBs) in company-hosted virtual communities of practice (CVCs), where KSBs are guided mainly by the sense of virtual community (SVC) and the shared meanings that are formed via the recurring communicative patterns and emotional responses in the interpersonal communication processes. The symbolic convergence theory (SCT) addresses the significance of the shared meanings of a social group in facilitating the harmony among and the favorable behaviors of the members of the group. By adopting SCT, the authors examine the effects of SVC and shared-meaning-related factors on KSBs in CVCs. Data collected from 159 CVC participants were analyzed to examine the research model. The authors found that shared language and shared emotional connection significantly influence KSBs both directly and indirectly via SVC. The research findings highlight the importance of achieving shared meaning among individuals in CVCs to encourage interpersonal knowledge sharing via effective communication processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei-Tsong Wang & Hui-Hsiang Hung, 2019. "A Symbolic Convergence Perspective for Examining Employee Knowledge Sharing Behaviors in Company-Hosted Virtual Communities," Information Resources Management Journal (IRMJ), IGI Global, vol. 32(2), pages 1-27, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:igg:rmj000:v:32:y:2019:i:2:p:1-27
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve.aspx?doi=10.4018/IRMJ.2019040101
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:igg:rmj000:v:32:y:2019:i:2:p:1-27. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journal Editor (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.igi-global.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.