An Empirical Research on the Influencing Factors of Knowledge Sharing Willingness among Virtual Community Members

Virtual community is taking an important role in sharing knowledge in recent years. In order to examine the factors that influence one´s knowledge sharing willingness in the virtual communities, this study proposed a research model in personal perspective based on the theory of planned behavior, social exchange theory and social cognition theory. The model was evaluated with structural equation modeling, and it came to some conclusions: Altruistic, relationship trust, personal outcome expectations and community-related outcome expectations have significant positive effects on knowledge sharing willingness of virtual community members; Objective commitment, community-related outcome expectations have no significant effects on knowledge sharing willingness, and personal outcome expectations has no significant effect on relationship trust; Relationship trust and self-efficacy have positive effects on knowledge sharing willingness indirectly.