Social motives polarity and its impact on knowledge sharing

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to look into the impact of important social motives on knowledge-sharing behavior in a collaborative environment and how people might react to each of these motives. Design/methodology/approach: The applied methodology used in this paper is based on an online survey and statistical hypothesis developed for each of the motives with different comparison means under two circumstances. Findings: The paper exhibits the different impact of each of the motives over the sharing behaviour in collaborative platforms. Despite general beliefs, although many motives might not have a very significant impact under normal behavioral circumstances that is based on either an agreement or disagreement level, all of those tested motives show a positive tendency when tested on the neutral (Dilemma) position. Research limitations/implications: This study has examined a small and generalized group of people for social networking analysis with a limited number of motivational factors tested. Future research can extend the findings on a greater scale and/or examination of more diverse motives. Originality/value: This study tries to change the presumptions about the collaboration-sharing behaviours and motives and how social environment can behave differently under the same circumstances on a business-oriented platform. The study also suggests how the findings can be applied to leverage social collaboration more efficiently to enhance knowledge sharing for business purposes.