Mobile social networking applications (MSNAs) can support but also frustrate knowledge sharing by strategically hiding knowledge. This study investigates why people share and hide knowledge using MSNAs and subsequent influences (sense of well-being; SWB). Integrating institutional logics with notions of self-affirmation and social face, this study proposes a model to link both the corporate logic (guanxi maintenance and knowledge sharing) and professional logic (territorial protection and knowledge hiding) to SWB, where self-affirmation mediates the relationship between hiding and SWB, and social face moderates both logics. Results from a survey of 593 LINE group users support all proposed hypotheses, except for the direct link between knowledge hiding and SWB. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Relation:
International Journal of Mobile Communications 22(2), p.156-183
