Impact of Gamification on Knowledge Sharing _ The Mediating Role of Self-Determination

Abstract

With the development of social Q&A communities, many communities were facing the dilemma of user loss and insufficient knowledge sharing. Gamification was a design paradigm that promoted user knowledge sharing, and its promotion mechanism was also worth studying. Taking Zhihu as an example, based on discussing the relationship between gamification and knowledge sharing, which included knowledge-seeking and knowledge-contribution, this paper further discusses the mediating role of self-determination in the relationship between them. The research used hierarchical regression as the research method. The results of this research demonstrated that the interaction of gamification traits (immersion, fulfillment, and socially relevant traits) has a significant positive effect on self-determination. All have significant positive effects on knowledge-seeking behavior and knowledge-contribution behavior. Self-determination has a significant positive impact on knowledge-seeking behavior and knowledge-contribution behavior. Self-determination was fully mediated between immersion-related gamification, social-related gamification, achievement-related gamification, and knowledge-seeking behavior. Self-determination was partially mediated between immersion-related gamification, social-related gamification, achievement-related gamification, and knowledge-contribution behavior. The research presented that was a new research model to explore the effect of gamification on knowledge sharing. In addition, there also demonstrated that improving the game level of the knowledge-sharing platform was an effective way to improve knowledge-seeking behavior and knowledge-contribution behavior.