Exploring factors influencing knowledge sharing of international students at Chinese university

Abstract

Knowledge sharing is an effective and efficient way for students to obtain knowledge in universities. Students share knowledge with their colleagues to improve the learning performance and at the same time to strengthen their social networks. Knowledge sharing of international students may be different from local students due to various reasons. Previous studies indicated many factors which had influences on knowledge sharing for international students in other countries, for example, language barriers, cultural differences, lack of feedback, sharing channels, personal obstacles and etc. These factors included two types, internal reasons, and external reasons. Internal reasons referred to the characteristics of students. External reasons referred to the environment. Chinese culture has its uniqueness from other cultures, for example, Chinese culture respect collectivism. International students in China might be influenced by the Chinese culture when they share knowledge. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing knowledge sharing of international students at Chinese University. After a literature review, an interview and a scenario-based experiment were conducted at Beihang University in this study. In the interview, nine international students were invited to participate. The results of the interview indicated the motivators and hinders of knowledge sharing of international students in the Chinese university. The motivators focus on enhancing social networking skills. The hinders included language barriers and cultural differences. In the experiment, participants were first asked to read a knowledge-sharing scenario and then asked to fill a questionnaire based on the scenario. The questionnaire was designed to test the motivators and hinders of knowledge sharing. Twenty-one participants were invited to the experiment. The results indicated that international students were willing to share knowledge with other students for two main reasons, which were strengthening their knowledge quality and making friends. For the hinders, language barriers and cultural difference are still the main reasons which have negative effects on knowledge sharing of international students.