Research on the Influencing Factors of Knowledge Sharing Behavior among Makers in IT-enabled Open Innovation Communities

Digital platform in sharing economy is increasingly focusing on customer satisfaction to gain sustainable competitive advantage. However, existing understandings of how network effects shaped the creative process of customer satisfaction are not well-understood in the information system field. Based on the expectation-disconfirmation theory, we proposed a conceptual model to elaborate on the roles of direct and indirect network effects on digital platform customer satisfaction. We test our model using survey data from 250 sharing economy platform customers. The key results of structural equation modeling (SEM) provide broad support for the following: (1) the effect of customer expectation on confirmation is completely dependent on the mediation of perceived performance in digital platform of sharing economy, and (2) the direct and indirect network effects contribute as the moderator at different stages of the model. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of how managers should effectively develop and leverage the network effects to improve the digital platform customer satisfaction in the context of sharing economy