Abstract

We investigate three important antecedents of individual knowledge seeking (KS) behaviors that are derived based on social networks theory: a) prior friendship ties, b) shared team membership, and c) gender similarity. KS behaviors are operationalized as KS ties and the proposed model is tested using data collected from student teams engaged in software development projects at a large public university in the northeast US and its Singapore campus. We use Quadratic Assignment Procedure (QAP) multiple regression to analyze the model. Preliminary results indicate cultural differences in KS behaviors between the US and Singapore samples. The effect of prior relational tie is positive and higher in the Singapore sample as compared to the US sample but it is negative and lower than the US sample for prior cognitive ties. Analysis also revealed no effect for two males but a strong negative effect on KS for two females in the Singapore sample.

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Differences in Knowledge Seeking Ties between the US and Singapore Students: An Exploratory Study

We investigate three important antecedents of individual knowledge seeking (KS) behaviors that are derived based on social networks theory: a) prior friendship ties, b) shared team membership, and c) gender similarity. KS behaviors are operationalized as KS ties and the proposed model is tested using data collected from student teams engaged in software development projects at a large public university in the northeast US and its Singapore campus. We use Quadratic Assignment Procedure (QAP) multiple regression to analyze the model. Preliminary results indicate cultural differences in KS behaviors between the US and Singapore samples. The effect of prior relational tie is positive and higher in the Singapore sample as compared to the US sample but it is negative and lower than the US sample for prior cognitive ties. Analysis also revealed no effect for two males but a strong negative effect on KS for two females in the Singapore sample.