A social cognitive framework of knowledge contribution in the online community

In recent years, knowledge management has become an important issue for many organizations to boost their intellectual capital and business performance. Rather than the emphasis of system functions, a social cognitive model is proposed to examine the associations among members´ cognition, interpersonal relationships, and their knowledge contribution behavior. The research results demonstrate that the online members´ outcome expectancy, personal efficacious beliefs, as well as the strength of online ties among online peers, have positive and direct influence on their knowledge contribution behavior. Moreover, the mediating effects of outcome expectancy and self-efficacy are both significantly proved on members´ engagement in knowledge contribution.