Knowledge has become a key factor to success in social environments and virtual communities. Also, human resources are a critical part of the creation and dissemination of the knowledge-based resources in virtual communities. Comprehensive understanding of virtual community dynamics can aid us to address critical organizational and information systems issues. Furthermore, virtual communities have gained high acceptance for people to learn and share knowledge. However, the detailed review and deep discussion in this filed are very rare. Therefore, this paper reviews and discusses the recently introduced mechanisms in this field as well as providing a deep analysis of their applied domains. This survey will help to a conceptual understanding of nature and the position of KS in virtual communities. Moreover, the drawbacks and benefits of the reviewed mechanisms in three categories such as social factors, motivation factors, and medical factors have been discussed and the main challenges of these mechanisms are highlighted for developing more efficient KS in virtual communities in the future. The obtained results indicated that helps the creativity and the success of the organizations, saving time and cost, reducing medical errors and also optimizing the learning effect. Trust is also the greatest prerequisite for KS.

Purpose This paper tries to examine attitude toward knowledge sharing (KS) for improving the innovation in medical services. So, this paper aims to analyze the influence of information technology (IT), staff, hospital cultures and patients and their families on the attitude toward KS and also examine the influence of attitude toward KS on innovation in medical services. Design/methodology/approach This paper presented a project plan that contains five research hypotheses, with attitude toward KS as a mediating construct. In this paper, Smart PLS 3.0 is implemented to study the calculation. The hypotheses are tested on data collected using structural equation modeling. Data was collected using questionnaires from a hospital in Iran. The statistical population of this research is unlimited. Through using the sample measurement method, the sample size for structural equations has come to be 384. Findings The results showed that all theories of the project are proved. Also, they indicated the importance of IT as an important factor in attitude toward KS and the latter's influence on the innovation in medical services. Furthermore, the attitude toward KS influences positively on innovation in medical services. As a general result, the managers of health organizations should empower employees to participate in decision-making and encourage them to resolve problems together and share medical information to promote innovation in medical services. Research limitations/implications This research must be carefully defined and accepted because the study information had special restrictions. At first, a prejudice was created, because the sample was self-selected. Second, the participants were living in Iran. There were different cultures and lifestyles among countries. Third, this research sample consisted only of hospital staff and managers. Moreover, little empirical research has been conducted on this topic in Iran. Iran’s culture is considerably different from Western culture, and it is unknown whether the same questionnaire that is used in the Iran context can be used in the Western context. In further studies, this research could be extended to contain other psychosocial elements that permit KS in institutions and increase innovation. Practical implications The medical industry is knowledge-intensive, remains a competitive advantage and accumulates knowledge, and the hospitals are the main subject. The role of this research according to providing a functional-theoretical plan enables authorities and practitioners to access thoughts about efficient stimulation attitude toward KS on innovation in medical services in the health sector. Also, the findings of this study at the same time are implemented to study relations between knowledge-sharing elements such as enablers, processes and firm innovation capability. Originality/value Modern study design enables the relations between IT and other influential elements on attitude toward KS and innovation in medical services to be analyzed. This design determines the coexistence of the participation and contest relations among participants, which is not studied in past researches. From a management point of view, this research determined various elements essential to a successful attitude toward KS and investigated the usage of these elements for improving innovation in medical services.