Knowledge Withholding in Online Knowledge Spaces : Social Deviance Behavior and Secondary Control Perspective

Technological advancement and growing interconnectivity have greatly stimulated the development of social and information networks in online knowledge spaces. As a result, social information activities, such as information generation, processing and dissemination, can be performed effectively and efficiently. Unlike current research focusing on the pro-social knowledge sharing behavior, this study presents an attempt to examine a rarely investigated social-deviant knowledge behavior, i.e., knowledge withholding in online knowledge spaces. To capture the social-deviant nature of knowledge withholding, this study proposes a model from the secondary control perspective. Using 480 online responses from an online knowledge space in China, the results show that both predictive control and vicarious control are positively associated with knowledge withholding in online knowledge spaces. In addition, knowledge sharing inappropriateness enhances the effect of predictive control, while weakens the effect of vicarious control on knowledge withholding. Key findings, research limitations, theoretical and practical implications are discussed