Exploring interpersonal relationship and growth need strength on knowledge sharing in social media

Abstract

Popular social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook and Weibo empower users to connect to people. Active SNS users are leaders of their peer groups. The youths are dedicated to share knowledge and information on SNS in their daily lives. We explore the motivation drivers influencing university applicants' online knowledge sharing behaviour on SNS. Using a survey questionnaire completed by 485 students who enrolled a university degree programme in various majors, the study found that perceived online relationship commitment had a direct, positive and significant effect (β=0.66, p<0.001) and the perceived growth need commitment also had a direct, positive and significant effect (β=0.21, p<0.001) toward online knowledge sharing behaviour, whereas perceived online attachment motivation had a significant but indirect effect on online knowledge sharing behaviour through perceived online relationship commitment. The proposed online knowledge sharing model explained 43% of the observed variance, and its implications are discussed. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.