Knowledge Sharing in Crowdsourcing - it is More Than Motivation.

In recent years, companies have opened up their innovation activities to users through the establishment of online crowdsourcing communities - firm-hosted customer co-innovation and value co-creation platforms; which stands for an important strategy, known as open innovation. However, we identify two research gaps exist: first, knowledge sharing literature emphasizes macro-level (organizational level), and pays relatively less attention to micro-level (individual level); secondly, online community research focuses mainly on the importance of motivation as a driver of behavior. Therefore in this paper we develop a conceptual framework that draws on the micro-foundations perspective to consider an integrated set of motivation, opportunity and ability (MOA) that drive users to share knowledge in the crowdsourcing community. Based on theoretical background of knowledge sharing in online communities, we put forward a theoretical framework to explain the relationship between MOA and knowledge sharing for further empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]