Understanding moderating effects of collectivist cultural orientation on the knowledge sharing attitude by email

This paper investigates the moderating effects of collectivist cultural orientation introduced in the information systems and knowledge management (KM) literature to fully understand the important factors and relationships in knowledge sharing in the online learning environment. Social norms and collectivist cultural orientation are hypothesized as direct and moderating factors to the system users’ (or learners’) attitude toward sharing knowledge by email. An empirical test of large student samples (n = 566) with multiple cultural backgrounds in the most diverse university was implemented by PLS. The test confirmed that collectivist cultural orientation moderates the effects of social norms on the attitude toward sharing knowledge by email. Furthermore, the test results show that group norms are stronger than the instructor or classmate norms. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for online learning and KM are discussed in the paper.

► Moderating effects of collectivist cultural orientation in the information systems. ► An empirical test with multiple cultural backgrounds in the most diverse university. ► Collectivist cultural orientation moderates the social norms on knowledge sharing. ► Group norms are stronger than the instructor or classmate norms.