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Estimating Contextual Motivating Factors in Virtual Interorganizational Communities of Practice: Peer Effects and Organizational Influences

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  • Kexin Zhao

    (Department of Business Information Systems and Operations Management, Belk College of Business, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina 28223)

  • Bin Zhang

    (Department of Management Information Systems, Eller College of Management, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721)

  • Xue Bai

    (Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management and Department of Management Information Systems, Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122)

Abstract

Virtual interorganizational communities of practice (IOCoPs) enable professionals belonging to different organizations to exchange and share knowledge via computer-mediated interactions. Since knowledge sharing is socially embedded, contextual factors likely play an important role in encouraging individuals’ community participation. Specifically, professionals in IOCoPs are embedded in two different social environments: the virtual community where they interact with online peers and organizations where they utilize their knowledge. Therefore it is important to simultaneously study motivating factors generated from these two different contexts, including peer effects within and organizational influences outside the virtual community. In this research, we apply a novel econometric identification method to analyze a unique data set collected from a virtual IOCoP in the financial trading sector. We find that, after controlling for individual-level characteristics, contextual motivating factors from peers and organizations are influential both quantitatively and qualitatively in determining community participation. Differentiating multiple-level motivating factors across different contexts enables us to shed light on various mechanisms that IOCoPs can apply to engage collective learning and knowledge management across organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Kexin Zhao & Bin Zhang & Xue Bai, 2018. "Estimating Contextual Motivating Factors in Virtual Interorganizational Communities of Practice: Peer Effects and Organizational Influences," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 910-927, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:29:y:2018:i:4:p:910-927
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.2017.0752
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