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Knowledge-sharing in virtual communities: familiarity,

anonymity and self-determination theory
a
Cheolho Yoon & Erik Rolland
Department of Business Administration , Mokpo National University , 61 Dorim-ri,

Chungkye-myun, Muan-gun, Chonnam, Korea, Seoul , 534729 , Republic of Korea
b
School of Engineering , University of California , Merced, Merced , California , USA

Accepted author version posted online: 13 Jun 2012.Published online: 24 Jul 2012.
To cite this article: Cheolho Yoon & Erik Rolland (2012) Knowledge-sharing in virtual communities: familiarity, anonymity and
self-determination theory, Behaviour & Information Technology, 31:11, 1133-1143, DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2012.702355
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2012.702355
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Vol. 31, No. 11, November 2012, 11331143
Knowledge-sharing in virtual communities: familiarity, anonymity and self-determination theory

Cheolho Yoona* and Erik Rollandb
a
Department of Business Administration, Mokpo National University, 61 Dorim-ri, Chungkye-myun, Muan-gun, Chonnam, Korea
534729, Seoul, Republic of Korea; bSchool of Engineering, University of California, Merced, Merced, California, USA
Downloaded by [University of the Punjab] at 21:56 14 October 2014
(Received 18 November 2011; nal version received 10 June 2012)

Although the role of motivation has been emphasised in knowledge-sharing literature, traditional motivation
theories, such as self-determination theory (SDT), have not been actively used as a research framework in
knowledge-sharing research. The purposes of this study are twofold. The rst objective is to propose a model,
based on SDT, to test the eect of the three basic psychological needs perceived competence, perceived
autonomy and perceived relatedness on knowledge-sharing behaviours in virtual communities. The second
objective is to explore the eects of familiarity and anonymity on the basic psychological needs to better
understand individuals knowledge-sharing behaviours in virtual communities. The results show that perceived
competence and perceived relatedness inuence knowledge-sharing behaviours in virtual communities; however,
perceived autonomy does not inuence knowledge-sharing behaviours; familiarity inuences positively perceived
competence and perceived relatedness, and anonymity inuences negatively perceived autonomy and perceived
relatedness.
Keywords: self-determination theory (SDT); knowledge-sharing; virtual communities; familiarity; anonymity
1.
Introduction
One of the most signicant benets oered by the

Internet is a rich amount of knowledge to satisfy
curiosity or resolve problems at home or in the work
place. Virtual communities play an important role as a
platform to provide knowledge to Internet users. Thus,
many Internet users are participating in virtual
community activities to get knowledge that they need
today. In a virtual community, members are expected
to oer information in return for knowledge gained.
Consequently, knowledge-sharing behaviour online is
the most essential activity for maintaining and developing the virtual communities. For these reasons, most
previous studies associated with these cyber networks
have focused on the factors that inuence knowledgesharing behaviours (e.g. Chiu et al. 2006, Lin et al.
2009, Fang and Chiu 2010).
In previous studies, researchers have employed
several theoretical frameworks, including social exchange theory (Kankanhalli et al. 2005, Bock et al.
2005, Lin et al. 2009, Jin et al. 2010), social capital
theory (Wasko and Faraj 2005, Chiu et al. 2006, Chow
and Chan 2008), social cognitive theory (Lin et al.
2009, Yang and Farn 2009) and the theory of reasoned
action (TRA) (Hsu and Lin 2008, Gagne 2009).
Although most of these theoretical frameworks except
*Corresponding author. Email: carlyoon@empal.com

ISSN 0144-929X print/ISSN 1362-3001 online
2012 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2012.702355
http://www.tandfonline.com
social cognitive theory are not motivation theories,

most of the studies have also proposed motivational
factors as inuencing factors on knowledge-sharing
behaviours. For example, Kankanhalli et al. (2005)
proposed knowledge self-ecacy and enjoyment in
helping others as intrinsic motivational factors in
knowledge-sharing. Wasko and Faraj (2005) proposed
reputation and enjoy helping as individual motivations. Moreover, Bock et al. (2005) proposed anticipated extrinsic rewards, anticipated reciprocal
relationships and sense of self-worth as motivation
factors.
While literature underlines motivations pivotal
role in this subject area (Wang and Noe 2010), it is
somewhat surprising that self-determination theory
(SDT) one of the most inuential theories of human
motivation to be developed in the last three decades
(Hagger and Chatzisarantis 2007) has not been
actively used as a research framework in this research.
The basic premise of SDT is that human motivation is
concerned with an individuals inherent growth tendencies and their innate psychological needs, which act
as essential nutrients in their self-motivation. It focuses
on the importance of intrinsic motivation in driving
human behaviour (Deci and Ryan 1985). In virtual
communities, an individuals actions in knowledgesharing can be regarded as a self-motivated behaviour
1134
C. Yoon and E. Rolland
without any external inuence and interference. Thus,

SDT can be considered an appropriate theoretical
framework for this research.
Consequently, the rst objective of this study is to
propose a model, based on SDT, to test the eect of
the aforementioned psychological needs on knowledge-sharing behaviours in virtual communities. Moreover, this study explores the antecedents of the basic
psychological needs to better understand individuals
knowledge-sharing behaviours in virtual communities.
One of these is familiarity. Familiarity is expected to
increase perceived competence and perceived relatedness because it increases the eciency of the work
through an understanding of the environment and
increased trust of other people (Gefen 2000). The other
antecedent is anonymity. Anonymity is reasoned to
have an impact on perceived autonomy because it can
reduce social barriers associated with dierences in
social status and power within groups (Spears and Lea
1994). Therefore, the second objective of this study is
to examine the eects of familiarity and anonymity on
the basic psychological needs.
The next section introduces the conceptual background of this study, including knowledge-sharing
research in virtual communities, SDT, and familiarity
and anonymity. Our research model and hypotheses
are explained in the third section. The research design
and survey results are presented in the fourth and the
fth sections, respectively. In the sixth section, the
results are discussed, and the implications that they
have on this study, and further research directions, are
explained.
2.
Literature review
2.1. Knowledge-sharing in virtual communities

As individuals knowledge-sharing behaviours are
believed to be the key to success of virtual communities,
researchers have employed a variety of theoretical
frameworks in their work to explore the factors that
inuence such behaviours of individuals. These theoretical frameworks include social exchange theory, social
capital theory, social cognitive theory and the TRA.
Social exchange theory (Blau 1964) has been
frequently used as a theoretical framework in knowledge-sharing literature. The studies based on the social
exchange theory regarded individuals knowledgesharing behaviours as social behaviours, which are
the result of an exchange process, and investigated
social exchange factors, such as trust, anticipated
reciprocity, reputation, altruism, perceived benets
and costs, as such inuential factors. Kankanhalli
et al. (2005) employed social exchange theory to
identify cost and benet factors aecting electronic
knowledge contribution. Bock et al. (2005) proposed
anticipated extrinsic rewards, anticipated reciprocal

relationships and sense of self-worth as social exchange
factors. In addition, Hsu and Lin (2008) proposed
altruism, expected reciprocal benet, reputation, trust
and expected relationships as inuencing factors in the
social exchange perspective. Renzl (2008) put forward
trust in management. Moreover, Lin et al. (2009)
suggested norm of reciprocity and trust; Fang and
Chiu (2010), trust and justice; Jin et al. (2010), social
benets gained from an active online communitys
participation; and Yu et al. (2010) proposed perceived
fairness as social exchange factors in knowledgesharing activities.
Social capital theory is also a theoretical framework that has been used frequently in the knowledgesharing literature. The studies based on the social
capital theory argued that social capital, such as social
networks, trust and shared goals, inuences individuals knowledge-sharing behaviours. Many of these
studies are based on Nahapiet and Ghoshals (1998)
social capital framework which consisted of structural,
relational and cognitive dimensions. Kankanhalli et al.
(2005) proposed generalised trust, pro-sharing norms
and identication. Wasko and Faraj (2005) proposed
centrality, self-rated expertise, tenure in the eld,
commitment and reciprocity. Chiu et al. (2006)
proposed social interaction ties, trust, norm of
reciprocity, identication, shared vision and shared
language. Hsu et al. (2007) proposed trust; Chow and
Chan (2008) proposed social network, social trust and
shared goals; and Yang and Farn (2009) proposed
aect-based trust and shared value.
Social cognitive theory is a framework that is often
used in recent knowledge-sharing studies. The studies
argued that cognitive factors, such as peoples selfecacy beliefs and outcome expectations, inuence
individuals knowledge-sharing behaviours. Lin et al.
(2009) proposed knowledge-sharing self-ecacy, perceived relative advantage and perceived compatibility.
Yang and Farn (2009) suggested compatibility. Chiu
et al. (2006), Hsu et al. (2007) and Lin and Huangs
(2008) theories are based on community-related outcome expectations and personal outcome expectations,
and self-ecacy based on social cognition theory.
The TRA, developed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975),
is one of the most fundamental and inuential theories
of human behaviour. The TRA has been used
successfully to explain a variety of behaviours. Thus,
in knowledge-sharing literature, some studies employed the TRA as their base model. Bock et al.
(2005) propositioned anticipated extrinsic rewards,
anticipated reciprocal relationships and sense of selfworth as motivation factors based on the TRA. Chow
and Chan (2008) and Hsu and Lin (2008) also
employed the TRA as their research frameworks.

Although most of these theoretical frameworks
except social cognitive theory are not motivation
theories, most of the studies have also proposed
motivational factors as inuencing factors on individuals knowledge-sharing behaviour (e.g. Bock et al.
2005, Kankanhalli et al. 2005, Wasko and Faraj
2005).
2.2.
Self-determination theory
Self-determination theory is concerned with the selfdetermination behind the choices that individuals
make without any external inuence or interference
and the basic psychological needs that are the basis for
their self-motivation (Deci and Ryan 1985). It proposes that human beings have basic psychological
needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness.
Research has suggested that individuals are more
likely to persist and produce better qualitative performance on activities when these basic needs are satised
(Roca and Gagne 2008). In SDT, the need for
competence implies that individuals have a desire to
interact eectively with the environment, to experience
a sense of competence in producing desired outcomes
and to prevent undesired events (White 1959, Deci and
Ryan 2000). The need for autonomy reects an
organismic desire to act with a sense of volition to
feel psychologically free (Deci and Ryan 2000). And
the need for relatedness refers to a desire to feel
connected to others to love and care, to be loved and
care for (Baumeister and Leary 1995, Deci and Ryan
2000).
According to Deci and Ryan (2000), the three basic
psychological needs satisfaction intrinsically motivate
individuals behaviour and specify innate psychological nutriments that are essential for ongoing psychological growth, integrity and well-being of an
individual. Several studies also have proved that basic
psychological needs satisfaction is positively related to
positive outcomes (Gagne and Deci 2005). In virtual
communities, an individuals actions in knowledgesharing can be regarded as a self-motivated behaviour
without any external inuence and interference. Thus,
it is assumed that the basic needs satisfaction will
engender the positive consequences, such as individuals knowledge-sharing behaviours in virtual
communities.
2.3.
Familiarity and anonymity
Familiarity is ones understanding of an entity, often

based on previous interactions, experience and learning of the what, who, how, and when of what is
happening (Gefen 2000, p. 727). In general, familiarity
may increase self-ecacy (perceived competence) and
1135
trust with the prior experience. In the context of

marketing, it helps customers and improves their
eectiveness and eciency in decision-making of
purchases (Komiak and Benbasat 2006). Thus, these
performances may feedback to increase self-ecacy in
purchasing behaviours. Familiarity deals with an
understanding of the current actions of other people
or of objects. It reduces uncertainty by establishing a
structure (Luhmann 1979). Thus, familiarity may
increase trust of other people or of objects through
reducing uncertainty. It may contribute to people
experiencing relatedness, feeling connected and supported by others.
Anonymity has traditionally been thought of as the
inability of others to identify an individual or for
others to identify ones self (Christopherson 2007).
This may occur within a group in a social context, such
as a crowd, or in a virtual context, such as online
Internet communities. Anonymity can inuence individuals proactive behaviour within the groups
because it facilitates participation by reducing social
barriers associated with dierences in social status and
power within groups (Spears and Lea 1994). Furthermore, it may provide the opportunities for all group
members to contribute their ideas and opinions, thus
knowledge-sharing group decision-making can improve (McLeod 1997). But some researchers has
argued that anonymity may aect group activities
and decision-making in ways that may not be so
positive because it can increase conict and negatively
toned discussion, social loang, bystander apathy and
group polarisation (Christopherson 2007). In any case,
anonymity may inuence individuals knowledgesharing behaviour in a group, such as the virtual
community.
3. Research model and hypotheses
The model for this research is based on the SDT
proposed by Deci and Ryan (1985). The research
model postulates three basic psychological needs
satisfaction perceived competence, perceived autonomy and perceived relatedness that aect an
individuals knowledge-sharing behaviour in virtual
communities and the basic needs satisfaction is aected
by familiarity and anonymity. Figure 1 represents the
research model.
Perceived competence can be dened as an
individuals belief that he or she can eectively perform
a particular task or behaviour and it is similar to the
concept of self-ecacy proposed by Bandura (1986). In
general, the self-ecacy plays an important role in
inuencing individuals motivation and behaviour.
Namely, individuals who have high self-ecacy will
be more likely to perform related behaviour than those
1136

a sense of connectedness, their motivation is enhanced
(Ryan and Deci 2000, Roca and Gagne 2008). In
knowledge-sharing studies, the sense of identication
has been found to be positively connected with
knowledge-sharing behaviours (Kankanhalli et al.
2005, Chiu et al. 2006, Shen et al. 2010, Yu et al.
2010). According to Chiu et al. (2006), the perception
of social unity and togetherness of the community will
elevate an individuals activeness to share knowledge
and increase the depth and breadth of shared knowledge. Therefore, we proposed:
Figure 1.
Research model.
with low self-ecacy (Hsu et al. 2007). The concept of

self-ecacy has been successfully applied to knowledge
management to validate the relationship between
personal ecacy beliefs and knowledge-sharing. Several researchers have employed the self-ecacy to
examine its eect on knowledge-sharing behaviour
(Hsu et al. 2007, Lin and Huang 2008). Therefore, we
also proposed:
Hypothesis 1: Perceived competence has a positive eect
on members knowledge-sharing behaviour in a virtual
community.
Perceived autonomy is the degree of having control

over ones own actions. The relationship between
perceived autonomy and positive outcomes has been
shown in a number of studies. In the work domain,
Deci et al. (1989) found that autonomy support is a
signicant antecedent of trust in the organisation,
positive work-related attitudes and job satisfaction. In
knowledge-sharing studies, autonomy has also been
suggested to play an important role (Cabrera et al.
2006). Thompson and Heron (2002) argued that job
designs that create opportunities for autonomy, as well
as interesting and challenging work, should help to
encourage knowledge-generating behaviours. Therefore, we proposed:
Hypothesis 2: Perceived autonomy has a positive eect
community.
Perceived relatedness can be conceptualised as the

sense of identication or connectedness one feels with
other humans. According to the SDT, although
competence and autonomy have a strong inuence
on individuals motivation, individuals are likely to
endorse their groups goals more when they feel
connected to group members. Thus, when individuals
are in an autonomy-supportive context and they have
Hypothesis 3: Perceived relatedness has a positive eect

community.
Familiarity deals with an understanding of the

current actions of other people or of objects (Gefen
2000). It forms the enhanced knowledge structure
regarding using of a technology or performing of a
specic task through previous interactions and experience with the technology and the task. The
structure of knowledge reduces the complexity of the
technology use and performing of the task, thus
brings the eciency of the work related to the
technology or the task. Therefore, the eciency
experience may enhance user competence in using
the technology or in performing the task. In a virtual
community, a new member faces the complexity, such
as how, what, where and when to perform the
activities in the virtual community. But the members
familiar with the virtual community increase eciency
of their activities by reducing the complexity related
to the virtual community activities; thus they feel
satisfaction about their ability. Therefore, we
proposed:
Hypothesis 4: Familiarity has a positive eect on
members perceived competence of knowledge-sharing
in a virtual community.
In general, familiarity may increase trust of other

people or of objects through reducing uncertainty.
Trust is the condence a person has in his or her
favorable expectations of what other people will do,
based on previous interactions (Gefen 2000). It plays
an important role in forming a strong relationship
between people. Thus, familiarity may contribute to
people experiencing relatedness, feeling connected and
supported by others. Feelings of familiarity with the
other members of a virtual community, or familiarity
with conversing with the members in the community,
can enhance trust in each other, thus making peers feel
closely connected to one another. Namely, familiarity
with a virtual community is expected to have a positive
impact on the relatedness of members. Therefore, we
proposed:
1137
Hypothesis 5: Familiarity has a positive eect on

members perceived relatedness of knowledge-sharing
High anonymity oers a low threat environment

(Connolly et al. 1990). Anonymity reduces social
barriers associated with dierences in social status
and power within groups (Spears and Lea 1994).
Thus, it provides the mechanism for group members
to safely display their ideas and opinions in group
support systems (Jessup et al. 1990). In a virtual
community, anonymity may have the same eect on
the group support systems. It can helps members to
express their ideas and opinions freely oering
members a feeling of increased autonomy with high
anonymity in the virtual community. Therefore, we
proposed:
Hypothesis 6: Anonymity has a positive eect on
members perceived autonomy of knowledge-sharing in
a virtual community.
Although anonymity in a virtual community is

expected to have a positive impact on perceived
autonomy of members, it is deduced to have a
negative impact on perceived relatedness of members. According to Chua and Jiang (2006), anonymity reduces social cues that are critical in an
interpersonal relationship, increases the perceived
distance of individuals as they are unable to identify
each other and restricts the topics of conversation
with those who will not reveal their identity. Thus,
anonymity negatively aects intimacy and immediacy
of others (Short et al. 1976). In a virtual community,
the perceived distance caused by anonymity may
prevent the sense of identication or connectedness
one feels with other members. Therefore, we
proposed:
Hypothesis 7: Anonymity has a negative eect on
members perceived relatedness of knowledge-sharing
4.
Research methodology
4.1. Data collection

The research model was tested with data from a
cross-sectional survey of virtual community members.
To maximise external validity, this research used eld
survey methodology; the web survey was posted on
the Internet and the request for users to participate
in the survey was posted directly on the virtual
communities.
In order to collect data from a wide variety of
communities, rst, we identied popular virtual communities through Web search engines 40 virtual
communities were selected for this study and the
message requesting participation was posted on each.

In total, 209 cases were gathered. Males represent 162
and females 47 of the respondents. Sixty-eight percent
of the respondents were below the age of 30, 61% of
respondents were university students. Detailed descriptive statistics relating to the respondents characteristics are shown in Table 1.
4.2.
Measurements
The questionnaire used for data collection contained

scales to measure the various constructs of the
research model. The measurements for perceived
autonomy, perceived competence and perceived relatedness were adapted from the Basic Need Satisfaction Scale which was developed by Deci et al. (1989).
The measurements for familiarity construct were
adapted from Gefens (2000) study. The items for
perceived anonymity were adapted from Chua and
Jiangs (2006) study, and the items for knowledgesharing behaviour were adapted from Lin et al.s
(2009) study.
Table 1.
tics.
Descriptive statistics of respondents characteris-
Measure
Value
Gender
Male
Female
Younger
2029
3034
4049
Older
None
Students
Oce workers
Experts
Others
High school or below
University student
Bachelor degree
Master degree or over
Art
Business
Entertainment
Humanities
Health
Politics
Science
Study
Others
Less than 1 years
13
35
510
More than 10
1/day
1/week
51/week
Age
Job
Education
Types of
virtual
communities
Member history
Frequency of
visiting the
community
Frequency (%)
162
47
6
138
46
15
4
1
128
41
24
15
4
131
38
36
13
9
46
18
5
2
11
41
64
30
45
54
62
18
107
74
28
(77.6)
(22.4)
(2.9)
(66.0)
(22.0)
(7.2)
(1.9)
(0.5)
(61.2)
(19.6)
(11.5)
(7.2)
(1.9)
(62.7)
(18.2)
(17.2)
(6.2)
(4.3)
(22)
(8.6)
(2.4)
(1)
(5.3)
(19.6)
(30.6)
(14.4)
(21.5)
(25.8)
(29.7)
(8.6)
(51.2)
(35.4)
(13.4)
1138

loads highly, with the p-value of its t-value well within
the 0.05 level, on their assigned construct (Gefen and
Straub 2005). Table 2 shows the factor loadings of the
measurement items and t-values.
All t-values in the Table 2 are above 1.96. The
factor loadings of all items also loaded highly (above
0.60). This demonstrates convergent validity of all the
measurement items for the constructs.
Discriminant validity is shown when two things
happen: (1) measurement items load more strongly on
their assigned construct than on the other constructs in
a CFA, and when (2) the square root of the average
variance extracted (AVE) of each construct is larger
than its correlations with the other constructs (Gefen
and Straub 2005).
As shown in Table 2, all the measurement items
loaded considerably more strongly on their respective
factor than on the other constructs. Table 3 shows the
square roots of AVE and the inter-construct correlations. Comparison of the correlation with the square
root of AVE shows that all correlations between two
constructs are less than the square root of AVE of both
constructs.
In order to assess measurement items reliability,
we computed a composite construct reliability coecient, as shown in Table 3. The composite reliabilities
range from 0.87 (for familiarity) to 0.91 (for anonymity), which exceed the recommended level of 0.60
(Bagozzi and Yi 1988). The AVE range from 0.58 (for
familiarity) to 0.77 (perceived autonomy), which also
exceed the recommended level of 0.50 (Fornell and
The pilot test of the measures was conducted by

graduate students majoring in Management Information Systems (MIS). Individuals indicated their agreement or disagreement with the survey items using a
seven-point scale. The wording of items was modied
on the basis of the results of the pilot test and the
advice of MIS professors. All items of the questionnaire are shown in Appendix 1.
5.
Results
The SEM (Structural Equation Modelling) approach

was used to validate our research model. Partial Least
Squares (PLS-Graph Version 3.0) was employed to
perform the analysis. The PLS employs a componentbased approach forestimation andplacesminimal restrictions on sample size and residual distributions. The
PLS is also more appropriate in performing exploratory
level studies, such as this study (Chin 1998) where
new relationships have not been investigated before.
Data analysis proceeded in two stages. First, a
validity test on the research measurements was examined by conrmatory factor analysis (CFA). Second, an
analysis of the structural equation model followed for
testing the associations in the research model.
5.1. Reliability and validity of measurement items
Partial Least Squares can test the convergent and
discriminant validity of the scales. In a CFA by PLS,
convergent validity is shown when a measurement
Table 2.
Results of conrmatory factor analysis.

Factor
Construct
Familiarity
Anonymity
Perceived competence
Perceived autonomy
Perceived relatedness
Knowledge-sharing behaviour
FM1
FM2
FM3
FM4
FM5
AN1
AN2
AN3
AN4
PC1
PC2
PC3
PC4
PA2
PA3
PR1
PR2
PR3
PR4
KS1
KS2
KS4
t-value
0.645
0.643
0.805
0.855
0.844
70.529
70.495
70.516
70.442
0.437
0.397
0.417
0.394
0.583
0.469
0.447
0.454
0.516
0.482
0.599
0.481
0.557
70.262
70.374
70.598
70.495
70.435
0.822
0.890
0.879
0.780
70.409
70.356
70.399
70.405
70.380
70.292
70.425
70.337
70.436
70.560
70.479
70.441
70.586
0.306
0.273
0.486
0.439
0.412
70.451
70.394
70.398
70.421
0.773
0.789
0.837
0.787
0.465
0.399
0.519
0.619
0.501
0.500
0.505
0.394
0.451
0.510
0.390
0.433
0.486
0.531
70.392
70.270
70.303
70.343
0.416
0.517
0.325
0.332
0.908
0.843
0.387
0.543
0.574
0.407
0.389
0.264
0.303
0.304
0.329
0.576
0.519
0.399
70.427
70.473
70.511
70.428
0.476
0.537
0.495
0.550
0.549
0.448
0.839
0.728
0.858
0.846
0.475
0.382
0.488
0.321
0.435
0.581
0.579
0.521
70.479
70.582
70.532
70.429
0.425
0.387
0.440
0.464
0.371
0.295
0.448
0.356
0.387
0.545
0.867
0.808
0.844
8.34
8.14
28.60
33.65
27.94
27.37
40.87
39.19
18.83
23.14
17.37
25.27
21.93
45.74
17.39
28.02
13.25
46.39
40.30
37.02
15.45
34.49
1139
Larcker 1981). The results, therefore, demonstrate a

reasonable reliability level for the measured items.
5.2. Common method bias
To overcome the concern of common method bias in
the survey design, we performed Harmans one-factor
test with the data were collected. In this test, all the
principle constructs are entered into an exploratory
factor analysis (EFA). Evidence for common method
bias exists when a single factor emerges from the
analysis or when one general factor accounts for the
majority of the covariance among the measurements
(Podsako et al. 2003). In the EFA, ve factors came
from the analysis and the factors explained 38.7, 8.1,
5.4, 3.4 and 3.5, respectively. Thus, the results do not
indicate substantial common method bias. In addition,
we examined the inter-construct correlations. Evidence
of common method bias should have resulted in
extremely high correlations (r 4 0.90) (Bagozzi et al.
1991). Table 3 does not indicate any highly correlated
factors (highest correlation is r 0.654). Hence, we
conclude that substantial common method bias is not
signicant in this study.
5.3.
and perceived relatedness, where a 0.01, and anonymity has a signicantly negative impact on perceived
autonomy and perceived relatedness, where a 0.01.
Thus, Hypothesis 6 is not supported. In conclusion, H2
and H6 are rejected.
In addition, 35% of the variance of knowledgesharing behaviour is explained by perceived competence, perceived autonomy and perceived relatedness
(R2 0.354), about 27% of the variance of perceived
competence by familiarity and anonymity (R2 0.267)
and about 40% of the variance of perceived relatedness
by familiarity and anonymity (R2 0.399). Table 4
shows more detail of the results of the hypotheses
testing.
6.
Discussion and conclusions
Although the role of motivation has been emphasised

in the knowledge-sharing literature, it is somewhat
surprising that the traditional motivation theories, such
as SDT, have not been used as a framework in
knowledge-sharing research. Accordingly, this study
proposed a research model, based on SDT, to test the
eect of the three basic psychological needs perceived
competence, perceived autonomy, and perceived relatedness on knowledge-sharing behaviours and the eect
Hypothesis testing results
Having assessed the structural model, we examined the

coecients of the causal relationships between the
constructs to validate the hypothesised eects. Figure
2 illustrates the paths and their signicance on the
structural model. The coecients, their t-value on the
structural model and the coecients of determination
(R2) for each dependent construct are shown in Table 4.
Based on the structure model, we performed
hypotheses testing. As indicated in Table 4, the results
show that perceived competence and perceived relatedness have a signicant impact on knowledge-sharing
behaviour, where a 0.01, while perceived autonomy
do not have any statistically signicant impact on
knowledge-sharing behaviour. In the hypotheses testing
familiarity and anonymity constructs, familiarity has a
signicantly positive impact on perceived competence
Table 3.
Figure 2.
Path diagram for research model.
Average variance extracted and correlation matrix.
Construct
Familiarity
Anonymity
Perceived competence
Perceived autonomy
Perceived relatedness
Knowledge-sharing behaviour
(0.764)
70.589
0.517
0.606
0.578
0.654
(0.844)
70.493
70.389
70.546
70.600
(0.797)
0.496
0.645
0.540
(0.876)
0.574
0.384
Note: AVE, average variance extracted; CCR, composite construct reliability; ( ), SQRT(AVE).
(0.820)
0.537
AVE
CCR
(0.840)
0.58
0.71
0.64
0.77
0.67
0.71
0.87
0.91
0.87
0.87
0.89
0.88
1140
Table 4.

Hypothesis testing result.
Hypothesis
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
H6
H7
Path
Path coecient
t-value
Perceived competence ! Knowledge-sharing behaviour

Perceived autonomy ! Knowledge-sharing behaviour
Perceived relatedness ! Knowledge-sharing behaviour
Familiarity ! Perceived competence
Familiarity ! Perceived relatedness
Anonymity ! Perceived autonomy
Anonymity ! Perceived relatedness
0.31
0.05
0.30
0.51
0.39
70.38
70.31
2.71**
0.56
2.69**
9.79**
4.56**
4.90**
3.78**
Note: Perceived competence R2: 0.267. Perceived autonomy R2: 0.151. Perceived relatedness R2: 0.399. Knowledge-sharing behaviour R2: 0.354.
** Signicant at the 0.01 level.
of familiarity and anonymity on the basic psychological

needs in virtual communities. The results showed that
perceived competence and perceived relatedness inuence knowledge-sharing behaviours in virtual communities; however, perceived autonomy does not inuence
knowledge-sharing behaviours. Moreover, familiarity
inuences positively perceived competence and perceived relatedness, and anonymity inuences negatively
perceived autonomy and perceived relatedness.
The ndings of the hypotheses-testing of the
research model were as follows. First, this study
showed that SDT can be a theoretical framework for
knowledge-sharing studies in virtual communities.
Thirty-ve percent of the variance of knowledgesharing behaviour is explained by perceived competence, perceived autonomy and perceived relatedness
(R2 0.354), and perceived competence and perceived
relatedness have a strong impact on members knowledge-sharing behaviour in virtual communities. Thus,
we argue that SDT can be a theoretical framework for
knowledge-sharing studies in virtual communities. But,
contrary to our expectation, perceived autonomy did
not have a signicant impact on knowledge-sharing
behaviours in virtual communities. One possible
explanation may be that a virtual community, generally, is a voluntary organisation that is not controlled
by anyone else. Virtual communities are already
guaranteed full autonomy of the environment for
knowledge-sharing behaviours. As a result, the eect
of perceived autonomy on members knowledgesharing behaviours may be negligible.
Second, this study showed that familiarity has a
strong impact on perceived competence and perceived
relatedness. In the SDT studies, familiarity has not
been emphasised as an antecedent of the basic
psychological needs. However, the importance of
familiarity in virtual communities might be greater:
familiarity inuences both perceived competence and
perceived relatedness. Namely, this role of familiarity
highlights a strong antecedent of the basic psychological needs that has not previously been emphasised,
though widely used.
Third, anonymity has a negative impact on

perceived autonomy as well as perceived relatedness.
Since anonymity reduces social barriers due to the
dierences in social status and power (Spears and Lea
1994) and oers a low threat environment (Connolly
et al. 1990), it is reasoned that anonymity has a positive
impact on perceived autonomy which is the degree to
freely express ideas and opinions in a group. This
result was opposite of what we expected. One possible
explanation may be that although the anonymity in the
virtual community may help individuals to express
their opinion freely, it also can be used to attack the
opinions of other people. Therefore, in a highly
anonymous environment individuals may think about
other peoples reactions to their opinion before they
make their opinion known, and these thoughts may
reduce an individuals perceived autonomy. This
explanation can be supported by deindividuation
theory (Zimbardo 1969), which is one of the most
inuential theories describing the eect of anonymity
on behaviour (Christopherson 2007). Researchers have
argued that anonymity causes a loss of self-awareness,
and that this loss is the key element that facilitates deindividuation (Diener 1980). Studies based on the
deindividuation theory have showed that anonymity
inuence negative social behaviour (e.g. Singer et al.
1965, Zimbardo 1969). Anonymity has traditionally
been thought to be more likely to create negative
outcomes (Christopherson 2007). Therefore, this deindividuation theory implies that anonymity may remind
people of others negative behaviours. Namely, if an
individual in the virtual community perceives high
anonymity, his or her activities may be intimidated by
fear of others negative behaviour, which again is
caused by the anonymity. Therefore, anonymity in a
virtual community may have a negative eect on
members perceived autonomy of knowledge-sharing.
6.1. Contributions and implications
This study presents important implications for research and practice. Although the role of intrinsic

motivation on knowledge-sharing has been emphasised
in virtual communities, SDT has not been used as a
research framework in this context. This study
proposed a model, based on SDT, for knowledgesharing behaviours in virtual communities. We showed
that SDT can be a theoretical framework for knowledge-sharing studies in virtual communities. Therefore,
researchers who intend to conduct a knowledgesharing study can consider SDT as a theoretical
framework in their studies. Moreover, this study
examined the eect of familiarity and anonymity on
the basic psychological needs. These variables could be
applied in the studies of other contexts based on SDT.
The ndings of this study also have important
implications for virtual community practitioners by
providing strategic insights into achieving success in
virtual communities. First, virtual community operators should promote autonomy-supportive conditions,
perceptions of competence and relatedness among
their members to increase intrinsic motivation on
knowledge-sharing. Second, in order to increase
perceptions of competence and relatedness, it is more
desirable for virtual community operators to create
familiarity through education and exposure than it is
to build knowledge-sharing through repeated favourable interactions. Last, anonymity has a negative
impact on knowledge-sharing activities. It is, therefore,
not desirable to allow completely anonymous comments to be posted in virtual communities.
6.2.
Limitations and further research issues
Although this study provides meaningful implications,

it has some limitations. First, the measurement items
for the basic psychological needs were adapted from
the Basic Need Satisfaction Scale which was developed
by Deci et al. (1989). However, one measurement item
of perceived autonomy (PA1) dropped due to low-level
factor loading values for convergent validity. Further
research should develop more valid measurement items
for the constructs. Second, although the survey was
performed based on various types of virtual communities for the external validity of the empirical results, it
failed to control for community-specic factors such as
the goal or geographic location of the community that
might have inuenced the empirical results. Moreover,
the respondent group was small, so it was not easy to
determine if it was a good representative sample of the
population. Therefore, a more in-depth experiment
should be designed and conducted. Finally, the data
were gathered from virtual community members in
Korea; the research model should be tested further using
samples from other countries, since cultural dierences
among virtual communities may inuence members
knowledge-sharing behaviour (Lin et al. 2009).
1141
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Appendix 1
Familiarity: Likert scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree
FM1. I am familiar with searching for knowledge in this virtual community.
FM2. I am familiar with sharing knowledge in this virtual community.
FM3. I am familiar with the members of this virtual community.
FM4. I am familiar with discussing with the members in this virtual community.
FM5. I am familiar with virtual community activities.
Anonymity: Likert scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree
AN1. In this community, other members would be able to identify me.*
AN2. If someone sees the comments that I write in this virtual community, he/she would be able to recognise me.*
AN3. When I see the comments on this virtual community, I can guess who wrote it.*
AN4. When I participate in this virtual community, I feel exposed.*
Perceived competence: Likert scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree
PC1. I have been able to provide useful knowledge in this virtual community.
PC2. Most days I feel a sense of accomplishment in this virtual community.
PC3. I feel like a competent person when I participate in this virtual community.
PC4. I frequently feel like a very capable member in this virtual community.
Perceived autonomy: Likert scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree
PA1. I feel pressured in this virtual community (dropped).*
PA2. I am free to express my ideas and opinions in this virtual community.
PA3. I feel like I can pretty much be myself in this virtual community.
Perceived relatedness: Likert scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree
PR1. I really like the members of this virtual community.
PR2. The members of this virtual community care about me.
PR3. The members of this virtual community are pretty friendly towards me.
PR4. I feel a lot of closeness and intimacy in this virtual community.
Knowledge-sharing behaviour: Likert scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree
KS1. I frequently participate in knowledge-sharing activities in this virtual community.
KS2. When participating in this virtual community, I usually actively share my knowledge with others.
KS3. When discussing a complicated issue, I am usually involved in the subsequent interactions (dropped).
KS4. I usually involve myself in discussions of various topics rather than specic topics.
Note: *Reversed scale.
1143

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