Title: Determinants of knowledge sharing of e-learners

Authors: Chung-Chu Liu, Shiou-Yu Chen

Addresses: Business Administration, Ming Chuan University, 250 Chung Shan N. Rd., Sec. 5, Taipei 111, Taiwan. ' Department of International Trade, Chung-Yu Institute of Technology, 40, Yi 7th Rd., Keelung City 201, Taiwan

Abstract: This paper is intended to identify the determinants of knowledge sharing of e-learners and their behavioural differences during the same process under demographical characteristics. Qualitative and open-ended responses to questions were collected from 29 e-learners. Content analysis of those open-ended responses showed that there are 215 themes. And we condense these themes into four dimensions: senders| factors, receivers| factors, context factors and characteristics of knowledge. Some key factors founded by this research, which indeed influence the knowledge sharing behaviour, are stated as follows: senders| factors: personality, emotion, capability; receivers| factor: dislike, attitude, personality; context factors: competitive situation, time pressure, contribution; characteristics of knowledge: ||private or secret||, ||interesting or issues||, ||valuable||. This unique analyses framework and valuable findings of our present research offer a good beginning for advanced investigation of the knowledge sharing, one of the most important issues in the digital era.

Keywords: knowledge sharing; content analysis; innovation; learning; e-learning; online learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2005.006665

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2005 Vol.2 No.4, pp.434 - 445

Published online: 01 Apr 2005 *

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