Adoption of an Electronic Knowledge Repository: A Feature-Based Approach

Many organizations dedicate money and time to implement electronic knowledge repositories (EKRs). To better implement these systems and motivate users to contribute knowledge, we must better understand how different types of users actually employ an EKR. While a simplistic view might consider an individual's level of EKR usage as high, medium, or low, a richer, feature-based approach allows us a more developed understanding of EKR usage. To achieve this objective, this paper develops an empirical taxonomy of EKR adoption profiles when other knowledge sources are available through surveys of 108 system administrators at a Fortune 500 Company. The three EKR user profiles - enthusiastic knowledge seeker, thoughtful knowledge provider, and reluctant non-adopter - are distinct in terms of knowledge sourcing behaviors and context.