Understanding the factors influencing user intention to continue contributing knowledge in social Q&A communities

Purpose: A social question & answer(SQA) community’s long-term sustainability depends on its members’ willingness to stay and contribute their knowledge continuously in the community. This research aims to investigate the critical factors which influence users’ intention to continue contributing knowledge in the SQA community. Design/methodology/approach: Grounded on information systems(IS) continuance theory, this study put forward a model of the factors that influence SQA community members’ intention to continue contributing knowledge. Survey was conducted to gather data from knowledge contributors of four major Chinese SQA communities(Baidu Knows, Sina iAsk, Soso Ask and Yahoo ! Knowledge). By using the partial least squares(PLS) technique, research hypotheses derived from the proposed model were empirically validated. Findings: Except enjoyment in helping others and knowledge self-efficacy, all other factors including extrinsic reward, reputation enhancement, realization of self-worth, perceived usefulness, attitude towards knowledge contribution, and satisfaction exert significant impacts on users’ continuance intentions in an SQA community. Research limitations: First, important factors such as the ease of use of information systems which may influence users’ continuance intentions were not investigated in the study. Second, the study sample needs to be enlarged, and users of smaller SQA communities should also be included, to make the results more representative. Practical implications: This study will help SQA community designers and managers develop or improve incentive mechanisms to attract more people to contribute their knowledgeand promote the development of the SQA community.Originality/value: This study improves the previous research models and puts forward a model of user continuance intention to contribute knowledge in an SQA community. It willextend the understanding of SQA community users’ intention to continue contributing knowledge by distinguishing these users’ different roles and focusing only on knowledge contributors.