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| The Impact of Group Heterogeneity on Knowledge Ordering Efficiency in Online Knowledge Communities |
| Qiu Jiangnan, Wang Jingxian |
| Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024 |
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Abstract In the Web 2.0 era, the online knowledge community (OKC) has become an important platform for producing, sharing, and acquiring knowledge. How to realize knowledge ordering and provide high-quality information and knowledge more efficiently is a matter of concern for the OKC. In this paper, a theoretical model of factors affecting OKC knowledge ordering efficiency based on interactive team cognitive (ITC) theory is proposed in order to investigate how group heterogeneity and team interaction influence knowledge ordering efficiency. In this paper, we chose English Wikipedia as the research platform and use a random sample of 100 featured articles acquired through its “random featured article” function. We obtained objective data about the articles and editors through an application program interface (API). The partial least squares (PLS) path modeling was used to validate the theoretical model. Results suggest that knowledge heterogeneity and experience heterogeneity have no significant direct effect on knowledge ordering efficiency, but that knowledge heterogeneity has a positive impact on knowledge collaboration and cognitive conflict whereas experience heterogeneity has a negative impact on cognitive conflict. Knowledge collaboration and cognitive conflict have a positive impact on communication, and there is a non-linear relationship between communication and knowledge ordering efficiency. Our study not only makes a theoretical contribution to OKC knowledge ordering research, but also provides practical implications for the design of collaboration tools and management of OKCs.
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Received: 15 September 2017
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