Knowledge Adoption in Online Communities of Practice

In this study we investigate how members of text-based, asynchronous online Communities of Practice (COPs) adopt knowledge contributed by other COP members. Previous studies of knowledge adoption in computer-mediated settings have drawn on dual-process theories of information processing to understand the role of heuristic cues and elaboration likelihood in this process. Here we extend this research stream, exploring two potential new heuristic cues: genre conformity and information consistency. In addition, we examine the factors focused search and disconfirming information to understand how they may induce non-heuristic cognitive processes. Survey data were collected from an online COP and findings support the hypotheses generated from our research model. This study advances our understanding of knowledge sharing in online COPs. Findings suggest that the context of an online COP can play a dynamic role in how members process the content component of that COP. Focusing on the pull technology of online COPs, it offers another theoretical link between Computer-Mediated Communications and knowledge management. Practically, it also provides us with insights into online COPs as a potential means for improving organizational knowledge management

Knowledge Adoption in Virtual Community: Exploring The Moderating Effect of Learning Orientation

This study aims to investigate the evaluation determinants of online knowledge adoption. Knowledge transfer in online context has been debated by many researchers but mainly addressed the knowledge sharing aspect. Knowledge recipient, however, is also a critical role in knowledge transfer. Thus, dual process theory is rooted as the theoretical foundation to investigate the persuasiveness of knowledge from virtual communities. A theoretical model of knowledge adoption suggests argument quality and source credibility would be moderated by the knowledge seekers’ learning orientation. The results of this study will be helpful to understanding the individuals how to evaluate and learn online knowledge. Furthermore, the moderator’s effect of the learning orientation may indicate how the personal learning characteristic affects the online learning behavior

Online reviews credibility: Implications on traveller’s decision making

The social web is the ideal place to share information, experiences and preferences among consumers. Nowadays, online reviews and recommendations are becoming increasingly important and seen as a new digital form of word-of-mouth, a key topic for researchers. Despite the significant body of literature about electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM), there is a lack of research that analyzes the phenomenon in the context of the hospitality industry, its drivers, conditioning factors and impacts. This research aims to highlight the online reviews as a reliable and important source of information for travellers, with possible implications in their decision making process. It is expected to yield some relevant contributions to academia, marketing and management in the tourism and hotel businesses

48P. User-Generated Content and Perceived Control: A Pilot Study of Empowering Consumer Decision Making

There is growing interest in understanding of how User-Generated Content (UGC) empowers online consumer behavior. In this paper, we explore the relationships between Consumer Empowerment and Perceived Control (mediated by Self-Efficacy) over the decision making process using UGC. The results of this study reveal that Perceived Control has an influence on intention to use UGC. The findings also suggest that Consumer Empowerment has the capacity to influence Perceived Control, both directly (primarily via Content Empowerment), and indirectly (via Social Empowerment and Process Empowerment, mediated by Self-Efficacy, which in turn influences Perceived Control)

A Knowledge Adoption Model Based Framework for Finding Helpful User-Generated Contents in Online Communities

Many online communities allow their members to provide information helpfulness judgments that can be used to guide other users to useful contents quickly. However, it is a serious challenge to solicit enough user participation in providing feedbacks in online communities. Existing studies on assessing the helpfulness of user-generated contents are mainly based on heuristics and lack of a unifying theoretical framework. In this article we propose a text classification framework for finding helpful user-generated contents in online knowledge-sharing communities. The objective of our framework is to help a knowledge seeker find helpful information that can be potentially adopted. The framework is built on the Knowledge Adoption Model that considers both content-based argument quality and information source credibility. We identify 6 argument quality dimensions and 3 source credibility dimensions based on information quality and psychological theories. Using data extracted from a popular online community, our empirical evaluations show that all the dimensions improve the performance over a traditional text classification technique that considers word-based lexical features only

How do People Evaluate Electronic Word-Of-Mouth? Informational and Normative Based Determinants of Perceived Credibility of Online Consumer Recommendations in China

This study empirically examined the informational and normative based determinants of perceived credibility of online consumer recommendations in China. Past literature demonstrated that informational influence is important in affecting reader’s evaluation of incoming information and the effectiveness of a communication. This study extends from the previous Word-of-Mouth studies by including the normative factors. Since online consumer discussion is characterized by its social aggregation, we argue that several normative cues could be salient and play significant roles in shaping a reader’s credibility evaluation towards the eWOM recommendation. The informational determinants (argument strength, source credibility and confirmation with receiver’s prior belief) and the normative determinants (recommendation consistency and rating) are investigated via an online survey to users of a famous online consumer discussion site in China (myetone.com). Results supported our proposed research model which substantiates the effects of perceived eWOM review credibility from both informational-based and normative-based determinants. This research provides researcher and practitioners with insights on receiver’s eWOM evaluation

Why Are You Sharing Others’ Tweets?: The Impact of Argument Quality and Source Credibility on Information Sharing Behavior

Twitter, a 140-character microblogging social networking service, has garnered attention from researchers and practitioners due to its considerable potential for information diffusion. Prior studies on Twitter typically focused on how user traits or relationships in a network affect information diffusion. However, few studies have been conducted on how posted messages in the service influence this phenomenon. Thus, this paper focuses on posted messages (a.k.a. “tweets”) and how they affect individuals’ information sharing behaviors on Twitter. A model for investigating tweet sharing behavior on Twitter is proposed based on dual-process theory and on social cognitive theory. Results from a preliminary test show that individuals’ perceptions of the argument quality and source credibility of a received tweet play a major role in their information sharing behavior via the perceived level of usefulness of the information and self-efficacy in regard to the sharing of a received tweet. Additionally, the existence of external links in a tweet moderates the impact of argument quality on users’ attitudes toward received tweets

Driving Change Through Brokering Practices In An Online Community Ecosystem

This study investigated how online communities helped drive change in a three-year professional development programme for New Zealand teachers. The programme aimed to embed effective ICT-based teaching practices in schools, together with a student-centred approach that positioned the teacher’s role as a facilitator of learning. An unofficial blogging community, connecting three cluster-based online communities to a global network, was found to play a role in driving embedding of the new approach. Influential individuals from this community (connector-leaders) employed a set of brokering practices, making differentiated use of technologies to foster knowledge embedding via five processes: focusing, persuading, aligning, adapting and owning. Their influence was extended by the activities of a group of followers who brokered knowledge across the online/offline boundary. The study identifies the workings of a socio-technological system in which change was promoted through brokering practices and sophisticated use of technology. It suggests that when system-level change is the goal, managers should consider the value of brokering roles and normative social processes that help to embed and sustain change. The activities of this system can be seen as supporting both the empirical-rational and the normative-re-educative approach to change (Chin and Benne, 1969)

USER-GENERATED CONTENT AND CONSUMER EMPOWERMENT IN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY: A USES & GRATIFICATIONS AND DUAL-PROCESS CONCEPTUALIZATION

User-Generated Content (UGC) on the World Wide Web has empowered travellers, enabling them to exchange opinions or experiences with others, and consequently, influencing their travel decisions. Travellers are able to make comments in a large variety of forms such as photos, videos, podcasts, ratings, reviews, articles and blogs. When people use the Internet to obtain travel information, they do research about the trip on the Internet, read and generate content and reviews, and interact with other travellers in social networks. This is empowering tourists by giving them the opportunity to receive and pass on recommendations of their travel experiences. Despite the importance of UGC in the travel industry, our understanding of how UGC empowers online consumer remains limited. By employing the Uses & Gratifications and Dual-Process Theories, we propose that Consumer Empowerment in the context of UGC can be formed through Content Empowerment, Social Empowerment and Process Empowerment