If you Build it, They Won’t Come: What Motivates Employees to Create and Share Tagged Content: A Theoretical Model and Empirical Validation

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing employees’ knowledge-sharing behavior on social tagging supported systems. Using the strong theoretical background of the well-known technology acceptance model (TAM), this paper proposes and empirically validates a model that fits the social and technical nature of social tagging tools within the public sector. The analyses in this paper were based on data collected from a large survey of more than 480 respondents working for two public organizations in the United States. The findings demonstrate a significant impact of the role of social presence in encouraging employees to create and share content. Further, there is a strong relationship between the benefits employees receive from using tagging tools and their creation and sharing of tagged content. Specifically, the following factors showed a significant impact on employees’ creation and sharing behavior, specifically their attitudes towards and intentions to create and share tags: perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, social presence, and pro-sharing norms. For researchers, the paper offers an opportunity to further study knowledge-sharing behavior regarding social media technologies. The findings should motivate practitioners to inject these tools with a social aspect so that employees are encouraged to share content.