Journal of Information Science

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
0165551506075323v1
33/4/451    most recent
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Chen, I. Y. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
This version was published on August 1, 2007
Journal of Information Science, Vol. 33, No. 4, 451-467 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0165551506075323
© 2007 Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals

The factors influencing members' continuance intentions in professional virtual communities — a longitudinal study

Irene Y. L. Chen

Department of Information Management, Ching Yun University, Taiwan, R.O.C., irene{at}cyu.edu.tw

The advance of internet technology has stimulated the rise of professional virtual communities (PVCs). The objective of PVCs is to encourage people to exploit or explore knowledge through websites. However, many virtual communities have failed due to the reluctance of members to continue their participation in these PVCs. Motivated by such concerns, this study formulates and tests a theoretical model to explain the factors influencing individuals' intention to continue participating in PVCs' knowledge activities. Drawing from the information system and knowledge management literatures, two academic perspectives related to PVC continuance are incorporated in the integrated model. This model posits that an individual's intention to stay in a professional virtual community is influenced by a contextual factor and technological factors. Specifically, the antecedents of PVC members' intention to continue sharing knowledge include social interaction ties capital and satisfaction at post-usage stage. These variables, in turn, are adjusted based on the confirmation of pre-usage expectations. A longitudinal study is conducted with 360 members of a professional virtual community. Results indicate that the contextual factor and technological factors both exert significant impacts on PVC participants' continuance intentions.

Key Words: continuance intention • virtual community • social capital • IS success • expectation-confirmation theory


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?