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Knowledge Sharing Through Online Communities Of Practice: An Empirical Study Of Chinese And American Employees From A Fortune 100 Company

In: Knowledge Management Competencies and Professionalism

Author

Listed:
  • WEI LI

    (Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 501 E. Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate organizational members' cross-cultural knowledge sharing behavior through virtual communities of practice. Using content and activity analysis as the research method, this study examined Chinese and American employees' online knowledge sharing behavior within the ShareNet, a global knowledge sharing system adopted by Alpha, a Fortune 100 multinational corporation. The participants were 205 Chinese and 205 American ShareNet users. The participants' knowledge sharing behavior within the ShareNet was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively in order to show not only how frequently they shared knowledge but also what they shared through communities of practice in the ShareNet. The study results show that on average Chinese users contributed knowledge less frequently than Americans but these two groups were similarly active in terms of consuming knowledge. The major content shared in the ShareNet included project-related documents and one-to-many type of question asking/answering. Implications from the study findings and some direction for future research are also provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Li, 2008. "Knowledge Sharing Through Online Communities Of Practice: An Empirical Study Of Chinese And American Employees From A Fortune 100 Company," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Suliman Hawamdeh & Kimberly Stauss & Franz Barachini (ed.), Knowledge Management Competencies and Professionalism, chapter 11, pages 123-134, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:wschap:9789812837578_0011
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