Members’ satisfaction and continuance intention: a socio-technical perspective
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain how sociability and usability enhanced members’ satisfaction, and how such satisfaction in turn, influenced their continuance intention of knowledge sharing in academic virtual communities (AVCs).
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on social capital theory and technology acceptance model, this study proposed a theoretical socio-technical model, and the partial least squares method is used to examine the proposed model, based on data collected from 431 subjects in a well-known academic community in China (i.e. ScienceNet).
Findings
Both sociability and usability were important to improve members’ satisfaction with knowledge sharing in AVCs. Specifically, social interaction ties, trust, reciprocity, shared vision, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are antecedents of members’ satisfaction, which in turn positively affects their continuance intention of knowledge sharing in AVCs.
Practical implications
This study provided insights that can help AVCs’ administrators develop effective strategies that could encourage continued knowledge sharing behavior through promoting members’ satisfaction.
Originality/value
While the socio-technical framework has mainly been used to study initial adoption and participation of knowledge sharing. This study proposed a socio-technical model to move a step forward by explaining the exact roles of sociability and usability in terms of promoting members’ satisfaction and identifying its critical effect on their continuance intention to share knowledge in AVCs, leading to a more comprehensive picture of members’ satisfaction and continuance intention of knowledge sharing in AVCs.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was partially supported by a grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project NO. 71263006), a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of the Ministry of Education (Project NO. 12YJC870004), and a grant from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Project NO. 1309076).
Citation
Chen, M. and Qi, X. (2015), "Members’ satisfaction and continuance intention: a socio-technical perspective", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 115 No. 6, pp. 1132-1150. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-01-2015-0023
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited