The Effects of Social and Technical Factors on User Satisfaction, Sense of Belonging and Knowledge Community Usage

Knowledge communities allow individuals to share knowledge and collaborate with each other based on common interests. The authors apply socio-technical theory as the overarching theoretical framework to propose a research model which posits that both technical factors (system quality and information quality) and social factors (community governance and pro-sharing norms) collectively influence user satisfaction, sense of belonging, and knowledge community usage. Survey data collected from members of a computer programming knowledge community show that community governance is an important social factor which affects users' perceptions of information quality, system quality, and pro-sharing norms. These factors in turn provide a nurturing atmosphere which results in increased user satisfaction, sense of belonging, and community usage. The implications for research and practice are discussed.