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Virtual communities have gained popularity as a means for individuals to learn and share knowledge. However, knowledge-sharing motivation, incentive mechanisms, and satisfaction in these communities have not been examined in detail. Using survey data from 169 community members, we investigated the conditions under which motivation, incentive mechanisms, and satisfaction affect knowledge-sharing behavior. We found that the incentive mechanism is a significant predictor of a virtual community member's motivation to obtain knowledge, and that the incentive mechanism and motivation do not positively affect a member's satisfaction that causes him/her to engage willingly in knowledge sharing with others in virtual communities.

We examined the role of network position and knowledge diversity as related to new knowledge creation within a network of 239 academics from business administration departments at four universities. Analyses of their 1,827 publications involving 1,541 coauthors between 1986 and 2008 revealed an inverse U-shaped relationship between network centrality and knowledge creation. Moreover, knowledge diversity positively moderated the association between centrality and the quality of the knowledge created, but negatively moderated the centrality-knowledge quantity relationship. RésuméCet article examine le rôle de la position du réseau et de la diversité des connaissances dans la création des nouvelles connaissances à l'intérieur d'un réseau de 239 universitaires issus des départements d'administration des affaires de quatre universités. Les analyses des 1827 publications dont 1541 cosignés entre 1986 et 2008 révèlent une relation en forme de U inverse entre la centralité du réseau et la création du savoir. Bien plus, la diversité du savoir modère positivement l'association entre la centralité et la qualité du savoir créé, mais modère négativement la relation centralité-quantité du savoir.