Exploring the determinants of knowledge adoption in virtual communities: A social influence perspective

This study aims to explore the determinants of online knowledge adoption with respect to informational and normative social influences. Existing studies on online knowledge adoption have primarily focused on the perspective of knowledge provider. Knowledge recipients, however, also play a fundamental role in knowledge adoption. Informational and normative social influence theory is utilized as the theoretical foundation to investigate the influences of informational and normative factors on online knowledge adoption. Based on the theories and previous literature, this study proposes a theoretical model of knowledge adoption, in which knowledge quality and source credibility serve as informational determinants, whereas knowledge consensus and knowledge rating serve as normative determinants. In addition, time pressure is hypothesized to be a moderator that impacts the dual evaluation process toward knowledge adoption. Data collected from 510 respondents was tested against the research model using the partial least squares approach. The findings demonstrate that both informational and normative determinants had positive effects on knowledge adoption, while the moderating test indicates that time pressure exerted influences with different directions on the two evaluation processes of adopting behavior. Theoretical and practical contributions are also outlined. (c) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.