Who Cares about Creative Contributions to Electronic Knowledge Sharing Databases? Effects of Top Management Openness, Affective Commitment, In-Role Behavior, Technological Adequacy and Job Security

Although the benefits of knowledge sharing have been widely recognized, organizations often encounter difficulties in making them happen. It is important to understand what influence employees contribute to knowledge sharing. Using survey responses from 173 employees of a large US university, we found that employees' creative contributions to an electronic knowledge sharing database (EKSDB) are directly influenced by their levels of affective commitment, perceptions of creative contributions as an in-role behavior, and perceptions of technological adequacy. Top management openness affects employee contribution indirectly through employee affective commitment and perception of creative contributions as an in-role behavior. In addition, the effects of employee affective commitment and perceptions of creative contribution as an in-role behavior on employee contribution are moderated by employee job security. By including intrinsic, extrinsic, and contextual variables, this model improves upon previous representations of factors leading employees' to make creative contributions to an EKSDB.