Formation of user stickiness in an online knowledge community in China

Online knowledge communities (OKCs) have gained great popularity in China in the past few years. However, the formation of user stickiness for OKCs and the influence of Chinese culture on users’ stickiness are still unknown. The face concept is a salient characteristic of interpersonal relationships in China, and in our study we integrated this concept in a model with social capital to investigate the impact of knowledge contribution on user stickiness in an OKC in China. Data were collected from 339 members of an OKC and structural equation modeling was used to test the model. The results revealed that knowledge contribution positively affected social capital and face, which further fostered Chinese users’ stickiness in an OKC. We have contributed to the virtual community literature by revealing the mechanism that underlies the influence of knowledge contribution on the effective running of an OKC in China.