Research On The Influential Factors And Mechanism Of Knowledge Sharing In Food Safety Virtual Communities

By the sharing of food safety knowledge, the consumers can improve their cognition level of the food safety and avoid the occurrence of certain food safety events to some extent. With the development of information technology and the popularity of the internet, the way of people sharing their knowledge has changed. At the same time, food safety virtual communities are becoming new important places for the exchange and sharing of the food safety knowledge. Although food safety virtual community has many advantages in food safety knowledge sharing owing to its greater knowledge scope, rapidly sharing speed,convenience and so on, there are still some problems exist, such as the inadequate involvement and the low knowledge sharing intention. Therefore, it is meaningful from a new perspective to identify the factors affecting the knowledge sharing and elaborate the knowledge sharing process and mechanism in food safety virtual communities.As a popular new media, food safety virtual community actually exists and is playing more and more important role in food safety knowledge sharing. However, the concept of‘food safety virtual community' has not been formally proposed in current research. In the meanwhile, the topic of the knowledge sharing in virtual communities attracts many scholars' attention from multiple areas. Based on the extensive literature review, we found that the research on knowledge sharing in virtual communities with specific topics is becoming a new trend of the current studies. At the same time, studies conducted from comprehensive or new perspectives are popular. What's more, the subjective factors from the individuals may have significant impacts on the food safety knowledge sharing in virtual environment; however they have not yet been got enough attention. The present paper thus do some research focusing on the topic of the influencing factors and mechanism of knowledge sharing in food safety virtual community. Firstly, the concept of food safety virtual community is firstly put forward. Secondly, the factors impacting the knowledge sharing and the knowledge sharing processes in the food safety virtual communities are elaborated. Then, the theoretical model of the influence factors and mechanism of knowledge sharing in food safety virtual community is constructed and the relevant hypotheses are proposed by the transplantation and integration of a variety of theories. To verify the theoretical model, an empirical study is conducted. Lastly, some advices and methods are proposed according to the research conclusions to promote the knowledge sharing behavior in the food safety virtual communities.The main contents and conclusions of this thesis are as follows:1. The concept of food safety virtual communities is firstly put forward and some research is done on the basic problems about the knowledge sharing in food safety virtualcommunitiesThe concept of the food safety virtual communities is given based on a relatively extensive literature review. The patterns of knowledge sharing are proposed and the internal condition of the knowledge sharing in food safety virtual communities is analyzed based on theory of public goods. The factors influencing the knowledge sharing in food safety virtual communities are analyzed from a knowledge fermentation perspective. Through the analysis,we concluded that the knowledge sharing in food safety virtual community is affected by social factors, systemic factors and individual factors. Then, combined SECI model, the process of food safety knowledge sharing on the one hand is divided into three stages: food safety knowledge externalization(food safety knowledge input), food safety knowledge combination(food safety knowledge diffusion) and food safety knowledge internalization(individual absorption). On this basis, a spiral realization model for knowledge sharing in food safety virtual communities is put forward. On the other hand, from a perspective of system exchange, the sharing process is illustrated from the transformation from the cognitive system to social system and the transformation from the social system to cognitive system, respectively.2. Building the theoretical model about influence factors and mechanism of knowledge sharing in virtual communityAccording to the general framework for the analysis of influential factors which is proposed based on the knowledge convening and fermenting theory, the knowledge sharing in food safety virtual communities are influenced by three aspects including social factors,system factors and individual factors. Based on the social capital theory, three variables including social interaction ties, trust and shared language in food safety virtual communities are adopted as social factors. Knowledge quality, system quality and service quality of food safety virtual communities are considered as system factors according to the IS successful model. At the same time, food safety knowledge sharing self-efficiency and psychological safety in food safety virtual communities are chosen as individual factors based on the social cognitive theory and food safety perception is regarded as one individual factor, too. Food involvement as a food-related personality trait is introduced as a moderating factor. Then,food safety knowledge sharing intention and food safety knowledge sharing behavior are introduced from theory of planned behavior and seventeen hypotheses are proposed. Thus,the theoretical model about influence factors and mechanism of knowledge sharing in virtual community is proposed.3. Designed the required measurement scale with standard processesBy referring to a certain number of related literatures at home and abroad, an initial scale with 49 items is developed under the domestic cultural background, for measuring the theoretical model that the present paper proposed. By conducting group interview and pretesting trial, some semantic changes are made to help easy understanding and oneitem is cancelled. Then by using the methods of Corrected Item Total Correlation Coefficient(CITC) and Exploratory Factor Analysis(EFA), 5 items are cancelled and the rest of the 43 items compost the formal questionnaire.4. Carried out the standardized empirical researchExploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis(CFA) are conducted to ensure the reliability and the validity of the measurement model. A structural equation model(SEM) is constructed and a moderated regression analysis(MRA) is done using data from405 respondents. Interestingly, the paths from shared language in food safety virtual communities, service quality of food safety virtual communities and psychological safety in food safety virtual communities to food safety knowledge sharing intention indicate that all of the three paths are not significant, while the paths from the risk perception of food safety,social interaction ties in food safety virtual communities, trust in food safety virtual communities, system quality of food safety virtual communities, food safety knowledge quality and food safety knowledge sharing self-efficiency to food safety knowledge sharing intention imply that these variables exert great influences on knowledge sharing intention. Meanwhile, the results show that in food safety virtual communities, the knowledge sharing behavior is significantly influenced by the food safety knowledge sharing self-efficiency, psychological safety and food safety knowledge sharing intention, and is mainly determined by food safety knowledge sharing intention(R2=0.60). What's more, the member's trust in others is significantly related to his or her food safety knowledge sharing self-efficiency and psychological safety in food safety virtual communities. Food involvement significantly positively moderates the relationship from food safety knowledge sharing self efficiency to food safety knowledge sharing behavior.5. Recommendations and methods for promoting the knowledge sharing activities are discussedSome advices for promoting the knowledge sharing activities are discussed from the aspects of relationship development, system quality control and individual's management,respectively. Firstly, promote the members' knowledge sharing behavior by strengthening the social interactions and establishing the trust relationship between members in the food safety communities. Secondly, optimize system design and control the knowledge quality in the food safety virtual communities by following the principle and process of quality control.Thirdly, enhance the individuals' awareness about the food safety, increase the member's food involvement and strengthen their knowledge sharing self-efficacy and psychological safety in the food safety virtual communities.