Knowledge Withholding in Online Brand Community: A Neutralization Perspective Completed Research Paper

摘要

Online brand community has become an important channel for consumers to exchange knowledge about products. However, because of the lack of explicit incentive mechanisms, users may withhold their effort in knowledge contribution. Although the underlying mechanism about why users contribute their knowledge has been well studied, the factors determining the knowledge withholding behavior are rarely examined. To fill this gap, from the neutralization perspective, this study proposes a research model by highlighting the impact of neutralization on knowledge withholding as well as the moderating effect of pro-social motivation. A survey from the users of a brand community was conducted to test the proposed research model and hypotheses. The data analysis results show that 1) neutralization is positively associated with knowledge withholding, and 2) pro-social motivation weakens the relationship between neutralization and knowledge withholding.