Influence Of User Expertise, Task Complexity And Knowledge Management Support On Knowledge Seeking Strategy And Task Performance

Knowledge management systems (KMSs) have become increasingly popular as knowledge-seeking tools in many organizations, but little is known about how people search for knowledge from the KMS. The results of a field experiment indicated that (1) the interaction between user expertise and task complexity affects the user’s adoption of ask-directed search and browsing strategies; (2) when a user’s perceived knowledge content quality is high, the interaction between user expertise and task complexity affects the user’s adoption of ask-directed search and browsing strategies; (3) when a user’s perceived KMS quality is high, the interaction between user expertise and task complexity affects the user’s adoption of ask-directed search and browsing strategies; and (4) task completion time and task quality are associated with the user’s adoption of ask-directed search strategies; user satisfaction is associated with the user’s adoption of ask-directed search and browsing strategies. Finally, theoretical and practical implications from the findings are provided