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Where does knowledge-sharing motivation come from? The case of third-party developer in mobile platforms

Goya Choi (Management Research Institute, Korea Electric Power Corporation, Naju-si, Republic of Korea)
Changi Nam (School of Business and Technology Management, College of Business, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea)
Seongcheol Kim (School of Media and Communication, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea)
Hyun Ju Jung (Hyun Ju Jung and Chul Ho Lee are both based at School of Business and Technology Management, College of Business, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea)
Chul Ho Lee (Hyun Ju Jung and Chul Ho Lee are both based at School of Business and Technology Management, College of Business, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea)

Journal of Knowledge Management

ISSN: 1367-3270

Article publication date: 28 July 2020

Issue publication date: 3 September 2020

1134

Abstract

Purpose

In mobile platforms, an increasing number of third-party developers (developers) create new ideas and enhance their expertise through knowledge sharing on the developers’ community. Notwithstanding the importance of the sharing and its uniqueness on the mobile platform contexts, the motivational factors of sharing their knowledge on the community have been underinvestigated. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive framework to enhance the knowledge sharing in the mobile platform context.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the theory of reasoned action, this paper incorporated intrinsic and internalized extrinsic motivations with two unique features of platform environments: platform open policies and coopetitive relationships. To test, an online survey was distributed to four developer communities in Korea, two Android and two iOS communities.

Findings

The results show that a platform pursuing higher openness causes the developers to find higher social pressure for information sharing. The coopetitive relationship with other developers in the same platform takes dissimilar roles; reciprocity significantly increases subjective norm, while rivalry does attitude. Self-efficacy and self-development stimulate knowledge sharing. Furthermore, multilevel analysis to capture the difference between two leading mobile platforms indicates no path difference but, interestingly, shows significant mean difference between the two platforms regarding perceived openness and rivalry.

Originality/value

With this paper, the authors fulfill the need to understand the knowledge-sharing intention of developers in the context of mobile platforms where developers can be potential competitors or cooperators and where two platforms offer different policies and developmental environments.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2019S1A3A2099973).

Citation

Choi, G., Nam, C., Kim, S., Jung, H.J. and Lee, C.H. (2020), "Where does knowledge-sharing motivation come from? The case of third-party developer in mobile platforms", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 24 No. 7, pp. 1681-1704. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-08-2019-0449

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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