Migrants’ knowledge sharing in ethnic mobile communities: Focusing on the roles of intra-ethnic trust, immigration status and community commitment

Ethnic online/mobile communities (EOMCs) refer to weakly tied online/mobile collectives formed by the same ethnic members in a foreign country to share knowledge via online/mobile networks. This study proposes two ethnic factors (intra-ethnic trust [IET] and immigration status [IS]) leading to knowledge-seeking and contribution (KS and KC) intentions and behaviours through the formation of affective and continuity commitment for the EOMCs. Statistical analysis is conducted with survey data from the members of WeChat communities formed by Chinese migrants in a metropolitan city in Nova Scotia, Canada. The results suggest that IET is positively associated with affective and continuity commitments, while IS, measured with a scale from study permit (1) to Canadian citizen (6), is negatively associated with affective and continuity commitments and that affective and continuity commitments have different effects on knowledge-seeking and contribution intentions in EMCs. Other cognitive (the usefulness of knowledge) and personal (reputation and enjoy-helping) factors are also tested for their impacts on knowledge-seeking and contribution intentions, which lead to knowledge-seeking and contribution behaviours. The findings of this study will provide the administrators and users of EOMCs with insightful implications for their sustainability and contribute to the literature on immigration studies, knowledge management and online/mobile communities.