Summer 2010 Journal of Computer Information Systems 11 WHY SHOULD I SHARE? EXAMINING CONSUMERS’ MOTIVES AND TRUST ON KNOWLEDGE SHARING WANN-YIH WU BADRI MUNIR SUKOCO Chinese Culture University, Taipei 111 Airlangga University National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan Surabaya 60286 Indonesia Received: October 20, 2009 Revised: December 23, 2009 Accepted: January 13, 2010 ABSTRACT In cyberspace, more and more consumers interact with each other and exchange knowledge within online communities. This study examines why consumers share their valuable knowledge, and also investigates under what conditions consumers’ motives strengthen the effects on knowledge sharing and other favorable behaviors related with brand community. This study proposes that trust has a moderating effect on the proposed relationships. Based on a survey of an iPhone community in Thailand, the main findings indicated that achievement motive plays the most important role in members being motivated to share their knowledge, and leads to their intentions to participate, recommend the community, and remain loyal to the brand. In addition, this study indicates that the positive effect of members’ achievement motive on knowledge sharing and other behaviors related with brand community tend to be strengthened when members have more trust in others. Keywords: Achievement Motive, Affiliation Motive; Power Motive; Trust; Knowledge Sharing; Online Brand Community INTRODUCTION An online brand community is a group of brand loyalists who are structurally constructed but geographically unbounded [34], who share, exchange, and create knowledge regarding the focal brand through the internet [39]. Either consumer-initiated or company-initiated online brand communities are established to serve these groups of people, such as those for Linux users [8], Nutella consumers [15] and many others. Among others things, brand communities enable members to exchange information and knowledge regarding the product, which can often help a company to resolve problems when members have difficulties with it [8, 36]. One stream of studies reported that members share their knowledge in online brand communities in order to identify with others [7, 8], maintain the existence of the sacred brand [36], and to share ideas with others [12, 19]. Another group of studies indicated that knowledge sharing activities engage customers in product innovation through emphasizing co-creation with customers [20, 38]. However, these studies did not specifically examine the drives or motivations of individuals inside the community to share their knowledge. As discussed by [16], individuals generally think their knowledge is too valuable and important to share with others. The question then is why are useful knowledge and information exchanged among online brand community members, particularly when a virtual community composed of members who do not know each other? One further question is under what conditions do members intensify their knowledge sharing behaviors? By answering these questions, marketers will be able to manage brand communities effectively by designing activities that will enhance consumers’ motives with regard to sharing knowledge. Moreover, marketers could create conditions which will foster knowledge sharing behaviors among members inside such communities. By following previous studies that state human motivations are multidimensional [31, 33], this study regards consumers as having many motives to share their knowledge with others inside a brand community. In addition, [41] posited that greater trust among members will increase participation in the community, and this study thus proposes that trust could leverage members’ motivations with regard to knowledge sharing and behavioral intentions. Specifically, when members have high perceptions and expectations that others will reciprocate their knowledge sharing actions, the positive effects of motivations tend to be intensified [30]. In contrast, when the members have low trust toward others, the positive effects tend to be reduced. Based on these discussions, this study examines the motives of consumers to share their valuable knowledge with others inside the online brand community. Moreover, this study proposes that trust among members creates conditions that magnify the effects of consumers’ motives with regard to knowledge sharing and other favorable behaviors related with brand community. This paper is organized as follows: First, definitions of the research variables are given. Then, conceptual arguments are presented to support the proposed hypotheses. The research methodology and data analysis are then discussed. Finally, the conclusions, implications, and directions for future research are presented. LITERATURE REVIEW Multi-Motives Motivation is a force that shapes members’ desires or readiness to participate in knowledge and information sharing [28] with other members in online brand communities. This study regards consumers’ motivations to share their knowledge in an online community as multidimensional [31, 33], and selects three basic human motives, related to achievement [43], affiliation [47], and power [44], which are consistently reported as determinants of social behaviors [10, 48]. This study expects that consumers share their knowledge in order to gain a sense of achievement regarding their knowledge of the product, affiliate with other members, and obtain social recognition from others. Since the earliest achievement motivation studies, this factor has been viewed in the context of individual competence [43]. In online brand communities, individuals seek the solutions of their