Social capital and knowledge sharing process to improve learning performance among university students

Abstract

By applying social capital theory, social exchange theory and social cognition theory, this study aims to determine how social capital, outcome expectations, and participation involvement have impacts on knowledge-sharing behavior, and then improve learning performance among university students. Target populations to explore knowledge sharing process in virtual communities were students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and International University, two members of Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City. By using PLS-SEM to analyze 742 observations, it was found that the relational dimension of social capital, community-related outcome expectations, and personal outcome expectations had significantly positive impacts on knowledge-sharing behavior. For multi-group analysis with various sub-samples, it revealed that the structural dimension of social capital had a significantly impacts on knowledge sharing behavior among engineering students and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology students. Best practices on knowledge sharing among university students in virtual communities would be recommended in this research.