Knowledge Sharing In Virtual Community:the Effect And The Mechanism Of Already Contained Novel Knowledge

With the development and popularization of internet technology, virtual community becomes the pursuit of internet users gradually and it is also an important medium about sharing knowledge. The knowledge sharing behavior of users played a vital role in the evolution of virtual community. Therefore, knowledge sharing in virtual community has received extensive attention of researchers. Currently, the measurable indicators of knowledge sharing mainly include the quantity and the quality. The latter mostly focuses on usefulness, timeliness and precision and so on.However, the novelty of knowledge is also an important indicator about it. Moreover,the studies about knowledge sharing in virtual community largely concentrate on individual factors and environment factors, in which the point of views about already shared knowledge mainly includes the usefulness, the reliability of shared knowledge and the like. Based on whether the already shared knowledge contains novel knowledge, this research explores its effect and mechanism on users' knowledge sharing behavior, including the quantity and novelty, and then explores the influence of the number about already contained novel knowledge on the behavior further through three studies:Research one: it uses single factor design between subjects, including two levels(already shared knowledge contains a piece of novel knowledge, already shared knowledge contains no novel of knowledge), regarding whether the already shared knowledge contains novel knowledge as independent variable and considers the quantity and novelty of knowledge shared by the following users as dependent variables, including non-repetitive knowledge and commentary knowledge. The results show that (1) the two levels of independent variable have no significant difference on the quantity of knowledge shared including non-repetitive knowledge and commentary knowledge, (2) the two levels have significant difference, thereinto,compared with that there isn't a piece of novel knowledge among the already shared knowledge, that already shared knowledge containing a piece of novel knowledge is more likely to increase the novelty of non-repetitive knowledge, while the two levels have no significant difference on the novelty of commentary knowledge.Research two: it uses single factor design between subjects, including two levels(the same as above), the cognitive motivation is taken as mediating variable and the novelty of non-repetitive knowledge is taken as dependent variable. The result shows the cognitive motivation plays the role of full mediation between whether the already shared knowledge contains novel knowledge and the novelty of shared non-repetitive knowledge.Research three: it uses single factor design between subjects, including five levels (one, two, three,four and five pieces of already contained novel knowledge),regarding the number of already contained novel knowledge as independent variable and considers the quantity and novelty of knowledge shared by the following users as dependent variables, including non-repetitive knowledge and commentary knowledge.The results show (1) that the number of already contained novel knowledge has no significant difference on the shared non-repetitive knowledge's quantity; (2) that the number of already contained novel knowledge has significant difference on the shared commentary knowledge's quantity, thereinto, compared with the low level, the high level of number is more likely to increase the quantity of the commentary knowledge which the subsequent users share; (3) that the number of already contained novel knowledge has significant difference on the novelty of shared non-repetitive knowledge, thereinto, compared with the high level, the low level of number is more likely to increase the novelty of the non-repetitive knowledge which the subsequent users share; (4) that the number of already contained novel knowledge has significant difference on the novelty of shared commentary knowledge, thereinto, compared with the low level, the high level of number is more likely to increase the novelty of the commentary knowledge which the subsequent users share.Based on these studies, some conclusions can be made as follows:(1) Whether the already shared knowledge contains novel knowledge influences the novelty of knowledge shared by the following users, that is, compared with that there isn't a piece of novel knowledge among the already shared knowledge, that already shared knowledge containing a piece of novel knowledge is more likely to increase the novelty of non-repetitive knowledge;(2) Whether the already shared knowledge contains novel knowledge influences the novelty of knowledge shared by the following users through making effects on cognitive motivation;(3)The number of already contained novel knowledge influences the novelty of shared non-repetitive knowledge by the following users, that is, compared with the high level, the low level of number is more likely to increase the novelty of the non-repetitive knowledge which the subsequent users share;(4)The number of already contained novel knowledge influences the quantity and novelty of shared commentary knowledge by the following users, that is, compared with the low level, the high level of number is more likely to increase the the quantity and novelty of the commentary knowledge which the subsequent users share.