Can Social Exchange Theory Explain Individual Knowledge-Sharing Behavior? A Meta-Analysis

Motivating people to contribute knowledge has become an important research topic and a major challenge for organizations. In order to promote knowledge-sharing, managers need to understand the mechanism that drives individuals to contribute their valuable knowledge. Several theories have been applied to study knowledge-sharing behavior. However, the research settings and findings are often inconsistent. In this study, we use the social exchange theory as our base to develop an extended model that includes IT support and organizational type as moderators. A meta-analysis on 29 reported studies was conducted to examine how different factors in the social exchange theory affect knowledge-sharing behavior. The findings confirm that the social exchange theory plays an important role underlying individuals’ knowledge-sharing behavior. The results also demonstrate that social interaction and trust derived from the social exchange theory and moderated by IT contextual factors can predict individual’s knowledge-sharing behavior

A meta-analysis of the factors affecting eWOM providing behaviour

Purpose- Numerous studies have examined factors influencing eWOM providing behaviour. The volume of extant research and inconsistency in some of the findings makes it useful to develop an all-encompassing model synthesising results. Therefore, the aim of this study is to synthesise findings from existing studies on eWOM by employing meta-analysis, which will help to reconcile conflicting findings of factors affecting consumers’ intention to engage in eWOM communications.Design/methodology/approach- The findings from 51 studies were used for meta-analysis, which was undertaken using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software.Findings- Factors affecting eWOM providing behaviour were divided into four groups: personal conditions, social conditions, perceptual conditions, and consumption-based conditions. The results of meta-analysis showed that out of 20 identified relationships, 16 were found to be significant (opinion seeking, information usefulness, trust in web eWOM services, economic incentive, customer satisfaction, loyalty, brand attitude, altruism, affective commitment, normative commitment, opinion leadership, self-enhancement, information influence, tie strength, homophily, and community identity).Originality/value- Applying meta-analysis helped reconciliation of conflicting findings, enabled investigation of the strengths of the relationships between motivations and eWOM providing behaviour, and offered a consolidated view. The results of this study facilitate the advancement of current knowledge of information dissemination on the Internet, which can influence consumer purchase intention and loyalty

Good for learning, bad for motivation? A meta-analysis on the effects of computer-supported collaboration scripts

Scripting computer-supported collaborative learning has been shown to greatly enhance learning, but is often criticized for hindering learners’ agency and thus undermining learners’ motivation. Beyond that, what makes some CSCL scripts particularly effective for learning is still a conundrum. This meta-analysis synthesizes the results of 53 primary studies that experimentally compared the effect of learning with a CSCL script to unguided collaborative learning on at least one of the variables motivation, domain learning, and collaboration skills. Overall, 5616 learners enrolled in K-12, higher education, or professional development participated in the included studies. The results of a random-effects meta-analysis show that learning with CSCL scripts leads to a non-significant positive effect on motivation (Hedges’ g = 0.13), a small positive effect (Hedges’ g = 0.24) on domain learning and a medium positive effect (Hedges’ g = 0.72) on collaboration skills. Additionally, the meta-analysis shows how scaffolding single particular collaborative activities and scaffolding a combination of collaborative activities affects the effectiveness of CSCL scripts and that synergistic or differentiated scaffolding is hard to achieve. This meta-analysis offers the first counterevidence against the widespread criticism that CSCL scripts have negative motivational effects. Furthermore, the findings can be taken as evidence for the robustness of the positive effects on domain learning and collaboration skills

Gamification of Digital Platform: A Meta-analysis

Gamification has become a popular tool for promoting user engagement on digital platforms. While previous studies have explored gamification affordances and desired behavioral outcomes across various contexts and perspectives, a comprehensive study that consolidates these findings has yet to be proposed. This research employs a meta-analysis research method to examine the relationship between gamification affordances, perceived value, and behavior through a review of 20 papers (N= 7733) using the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework. The results show that achievement-related, social-related, and immersion-related affordances influence behavior through individuals\u27 perceived functional, social, and emotional values. Significantly, achievement-related affordance and functional value have the strongest effect on user behavior. Interestingly, achievement-related affordances have the most effective influence on social value. Consequently, this study contributes to both the theoretical and practical implications of gamification literature and industry

A qualitative meta-analysis of trust in supervisor-subordinate relationships

Purpose: – Interpersonal trust is often considered as the “glue” that binds supervisors together with their subordinates, and creates a positive organisational climate. The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors affecting subordinates’ trust to their supervisor, and the consequences of such a trusting relationship. Design/methodology/approach: – The authors conducted a qualitative meta-analysis of the trust literature between 1995 and 2011, to identify 73 articles and review 37 theoretical propositions, 139 significant model parameters and 58 further empirical findings. Findings: – Four distinct clusters of trust antecedents are found: supervisor attributes; subordinate attributes; interpersonal processes and organisational characteristics. Similarly, the authors identify three categories of trust consequences: subordinates’ work behaviour; subordinates’ attitude towards the supervisor; and organisational level effects. Research limitations/implications: – The authors find a bias towards studying supervisor attributes and interpersonal processes, yet a dearth of attention on subordinate attributes and organisational characteristics. Similarly, the conceptual attention on trust between supervisors and subordinates has been limited, with empirical work reporting predominantly significant findings. Social exchange has dominated as the theoretical perspective, and cross-section as the main research approach. In order to advance this important field more heterogeneity is needed, utilising a range of different theoretical schools and employing different methodologies. Originality/value: – This seems to be the first qualitative meta-analysis explicitly directed to understanding trust between supervisors and subordinates. The authors contribute to the field of trust by revealing current gaps in the literature and highlighting potential areas of future research

Success Factors for Information Systems Outsourcing: A Meta-Analysis

This paper develops a new model for interpreting the critical success factors for information systems (IS) outsourcing. Ten meta-analyses are performed, each representing a common outsourcing success factor from within the current literature. The study’s findings suggest that the most important antecedents to IS outsourcing success are attention to strategy, business relationships, finance, knowledge sharing, and service quality. Five moderators are also investigated and the industry of the customer is found to have the strongest effect on IS outsourcing success. The results from this study contribute to the academic literature by presenting past research results in a unique manner, thus enhancing the discipline’s understanding of IS outsourcing success factors. As well, the findings contribute to practice by guiding organizations to the activities that are most related to the achievement of IS outsourcing success

Designing Adaptive Instruction for Teams: a Meta-Analysis

The goal of this research was the development of a practical architecture for the computer-based tutoring of teams. This article examines the relationship of team behaviors as antecedents to successful team performance and learning during adaptive instruction guided by Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs). Adaptive instruction is a training or educational experience tailored by artificially-intelligent, computer-based tutors with the goal of optimizing learner outcomes (e.g., knowledge and skill acquisition, performance, enhanced retention, accelerated learning, or transfer of skills from instructional environments to work environments). The core contribution of this research was the identification of behavioral markers associated with the antecedents of team performance and learning thus enabling the development and refinement of teamwork models in ITS architectures. Teamwork focuses on the coordination, cooperation, and communication among individuals to achieve a shared goal. For ITSs to optimally tailor team instruction, tutors must have key insights about both the team and the learners on that team. To aid the modeling of teams, we examined the literature to evaluate the relationship of teamwork behaviors (e.g., communication, cooperation, coordination, cognition, leadership/coaching, and conflict) with team outcomes (learning, performance, satisfaction, and viability) as part of a large-scale meta-analysis of the ITS, team training, and team performance literature. While ITSs have been used infrequently to instruct teams, the goal of this meta-analysis make team tutoring more ubiquitous by: identifying significant relationships between team behaviors and effective performance and learning outcomes; developing instructional guidelines for team tutoring based on these relationships; and applying these team tutoring guidelines to the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT), an open source architecture for authoring, delivering, managing, and evaluating adaptive instructional tools and methods. In doing this, we have designed a domain-independent framework for the adaptive instruction of teams

Can mutual trust explain the diversity-performance relationship? A meta-analysis

Trust is gaining attention for its benefits to both teams and organizations as a whole (Fulmer & Gelfand, 2012). The difficulty of building it in comparison to the ease of destroying it calls for a deeper understanding of trust, as well as its relationship with critical team outcomes (Colquitt, LePine, Piccolo, Zapata, & Rich, 2012). Unfortunately, current research has progressed in a disjointed manner that requires the integration of findings before a more parsimonious and descriptive understanding of trust at the team-level can be developed. Beyond this basic understanding, research is needed to explore the nature of trust in teams comprised of diverse members, as multi-national, multi-cultural, and interdisciplinary teams are increasingly characterizing the modern landscape. Thus, this article uses meta-analytic techniques to examine the extent to which mutual trust can serve as an underlying mechanism that drives the diversity-team performance relationship. First, surface-level and deep-level diversity characteristics varied in their impact on trust. Value diversity emerged as the most detrimental, along with the moderating effect of time. Second, 95 independent samples comprising 5,721 teams emphasized the importance of trust to team performance with a moderate and positive relationship. Third, mediation analyses answered recent calls (e.g., van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007) to examine underlying mechanisms that can explain the diversity-outcomes relationship. This showed age, gender, value, and function diversity to be related to performance through mutual trust. Furthermore, this study explores whether contextual (e.g., team distribution) as well as measurement (e.g., referent) issues pose systematic differences in the diversity-trust and trust-performance relationships. Surprisingly, the construct of trust at the team-level proved to be generalizable across a number of unique conditions. In addition to this extensive quantitative review, implications and future research are discussed

How managers can build trust in strategic alliances: a meta-analysis on the central trust-building mechanisms

Trust is an important driver of superior alliance performance. Alliance managers are influential in this regard because trust requires active involvement, commitment and the dedicated support of the key actors involved in the strategic alliance. Despite the importance of trust for explaining alliance performance, little effort has been made to systematically investigate the mechanisms that managers can use to purposefully create trust in strategic alliances. We use Parkhe’s (1998b) theoretical framework to derive nine hypotheses that distinguish between process-based, characteristic-based and institutional-based trust-building mechanisms. Our meta-analysis of 64 empirical studies shows that trust is strongly related to alliance performance. Process-based mechanisms are more important for building trust than characteristic- and institutional-based mechanisms. The effects of prior ties and asset specificity are not as strong as expected and the impact of safeguards on trust is not well understood. Overall, theoretical trust research has outpaced empirical research by far and promising opportunities for future empirical research exist

Organizational Network Analysis

The integrated meta-model for organizational resource audit is a consistent and comprehensive instrument for auditing intangible resources and their relations and associations from the network perspective. This book undertakes a critically important problem of management sciences, poorly recognized in literature although determining the current and future competitiveness of enterprises, sectors and economies. The author notes the need to introduce a theoretical input, which is manifested by the meta-model. An expression of this treatment is the inclusion of the network as a structure of activities, further knowledge as an activity, and intangible assets as intellectual capital characterized by a structure of connections. The case study presented is an illustration of the use of network analysis tools and other instruments to identify not only the most important resources, tasks or actors, as well as their effectiveness, but also to connect the identified networks with each other. The author opens the field for applying her methodology, revealing the structural and dynamic features of the intangible resources of the organization. The novelty of the proposed meta-model shows the way to in-depth applications of network analysis techniques in an intra-organizational environment. Organizational Network Analysis makes a significant contribution to the development of management sciences, in terms of strategic management and more strictly resource approach to the company through structural definition of knowledge; application of the concept of improvement-oriented audit abandoning a narrow understanding of this technique in terms of compliance; reliable presentation of audits available in the literature; rigorous reasoning leading to the development of a meta-model; close linking of knowledge and resources with the strategy at the design stage of the developed audit model, including the analysis of link dynamics and networks together with an extensive metrics proposal; an interesting illustration of the application with the use of metrics, tables and charts. It will be of value to researchers, academics, managers, and students in the fields of strategic management, organizational studies, social network analysis in management, knowledge management, and auditing knowledge resources in organizations