Abstract—Knowledge withholding intention refers to one’s propensity to choose to conceal knowledge that is important or valuable to others. Students’ knowledge withholding behavior is an obstacle to social knowledge construction in the context of university commerce and management education. While several previous studies have explored the factors affecting knowledge sharing intention, little research has investigated the factors influencing knowledge withholding intention. Prior studies suggest that personality traits affect knowledge contribution behaviors. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to explore the effect of university students’ personality traits on knowledge withholding intention in commerce and management education from a multi-theory perspective. Based on the concepts of Big Five personality traits, locus of control personality, social identity theory, and social exchange theory, this study proposes a multi-theory model to investigate how personality traits influence knowledge withholding intention through the mediation of perceived social identity. Additionally, expected rewards and expected associations are also hypothesized to moderate the effect of perceived social identity on knowledge withholding intention.
Index Terms—Knowledge withholding, locus of control, big five personality traits, social identity theory, social exchange theory.
H. H. Lin is with National Taichung University of Science and
Technology, Taiwan (e-mail: brenda@ntit.edu.tw).
Y. S. Wang is with National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan.
Cite: Hsin-Hui Lin and Yi-Shun Wang, "Investigating the Effect of University Students’ Personality Traits on Knowledge With holding Intention: A Multi-theory Perspective," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 354-357, 2012.