Knowledge Sharing Online - Information Communication Technologies for Human Services Education and Delivery - page 238

Figure 1. Cognitive model of e-Mavenism

tion and self-pleasure), online social network size,
and topic salience.
Internal motivations: Three motivational
factors—altruism, obligation and self-pleasure—
influence knowledge sharing behavior and e-
Mavenism. Altruism, the desire to help and sup-
port other people, is consistently reported as the
primary motivation of knowledge sharing behavior
even though researchers have proposed different
motivational factors such as anxiety reduction,
self enhancement, vengeance and advice seeking
(Datta et al., 2005; Herschel & Yermish, 2008;
Walsh, et al., 2004). In addition, there is evidence
that a sense of obligation to share information
with other people, and the feeling of pleasure by
informing others encourages knowledge sharing
(Goldsmith, Clark, & Goldsmith, 2006).
Online social network size : As explained
earlier, e-Mavenism is conducted by knowledge-
able people who have many information sources
and the number and diversity of online social
network contacts has a positive relationship with
knowledge levels (Constant et al, 1996). Online
social networks are comprised of more diverse
ties because of the number of weak ties including

relative strangers (Stefanone, Lackaff & Rosen,
2008). Unlike offline social networks, online weak
ties function as bridges for online expertise infor-
mation sources (Datta et al., 2005; Granovetter,
1973) and increase the diversity of information
sources (Constant et. al., 1996). Consequently,
information from online weak ties makes online
users more generally knowledgeable, which pro-
motes e-Mavenism. Therefore, online network
size is a predictor of e-Mavenism.
Topic Salience: The concept of topic salience
is closely related to diffusion of innovations, es-
pecially in the context of knowledge and news.
According to Inoue and Kawakami (2004), people
estimate the degree of salience for information in
the initial stage of new knowledge diffusion, and
decide whether or not to diffuse the new informa-
tion to others depending on the salience of topic.
In the other words, the degree of topic salience is
a predictor of knowledge diffusion and knowledge
sharing. New information with a high degree of
salience is diffused and shared by people much
more rapidly and widely than a less salient topic
(Rogers & Seidel, 2002).