Knowledge sharing in open source mobile applications project

Abstract

The very rapid adoption of mobile devices has attracted Open Source Mobile Application (OSMA) developers to create OSMAs and deliver them to the market. However, the majority of mobile communication studies have examined mobile applications from the end-users' perspective, and relatively little is known from the developers' side. As such, this research aims to investigate the developers' knowledge sharing behaviours within the context of OSMA development project. Drawing from social capital theory and the team cognition literature, the present study developed a research framework that viewed OSMA development project as involving both a virtual community and virtual team. We found that some dimensions of social capital and team cognition positively affect knowledge sharing. Meanwhile, social capital is found to positively influence team cognition. The implications and contributions of this study to the literature are discussed in the article.