“How to use it more?” Self-efficacy and its sources in the use of social media for knowledge sharing
| Published date | 19 August 2019 |
| Pages | 231-257 |
| Date | 19 August 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-02-2019-0026 |
| Author | Hussain Alshahrani,Diane Rasmussen Pennington |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
“How to use it more?”
Self-efficacy and its sources in
the use of social media for
knowledge sharing
Hussain Alshahrani
Department of Computer and Information Sciences,
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK and
Shaqra University, Shaqra, Saudi Arabia, and
Diane Rasmussen Pennington
Department of Computer and Information Sciences,
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate sources of self-efficacy for researchers andthe sources’
impact on the researchers’use of social media for knowledge sharing. It is a continuation of a larger study
(Alshahrani and Rasmussen Pennington, 2018).
Design/methodology/approach –The authors distributed an online questionnaire to researchers at the
University of Strathclyde (n¼144) and analysed the responses using descriptive statistics.
Findings –Participants relied on personal mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and
emotional arousal for social media use. These elements of self-efficacy mostly led them to use it effectively,
with a few exceptions.
Research limitations/implications –The convenience sample utilised for this study, which included
academic staff, researchers and PhD students at one university, is small and may not be entirely
representative of the larger population.
Practical implications –This study contributes to the existing literature on social mediaand knowledge
sharing. It canhelp researchers understand howthey can develop their self-efficacyand its sources in order to
enhance their online professional presence. Additionally,academic institutions can use theseresults to inform
how they can best encourage and support their researchers in improving their professional social media use.
Originality/value –Researchers do rely on their self-efficacy and its sources to use social media for
knowledge sharing. These results can help researchers and their institutions eliminate barriers and improve
online engagement with colleagues, students, the public and other relevant research stakeholders.
Keywords Researchers, Barriers
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In the last few years, social media has been increasingly used as a tool for communicating
and sharing. Facebook, Twitter LinkedIn, YouTube and others are frequently utilised to
facilitate sharing of ideas, pictures, comments and other forms of knowledge (Kaplan and
Haenlein, 2010). Sharing knowledge amongst researchers can assist them in improving and
developing ideas; social media is obviously one way to accomplish this (Panahi et al., 2016).
Indeed, social media use for knowledge sharing can remove the space and time constraints
that occur when using more traditional methods of communication (Fotis, 2015). In the
process of sharing knowledge through social media, researchers can discuss ideas and
develop topics, present their professional selves virtually and share their outputs (Panahi
et al., 2016; Alshahrani and Rasmussen Pennington, 2018; Veletsianos, 2016; Carrigan, 2016;
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 76 No. 1, 2020
pp. 231-257
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-02-2019-0026
Received 8 February 2019
Revised 10 July 2019
Accepted 13 July 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
This workwas supported byShaqra University,Saudi Arabia. Theauthors wish to thankthe participants
who participated in the study.In addition, the authors wouldalso like to thank the anonymousreviewers
for their beneficial and constructive comments.
231
Use of social
media for
knowledge
sharing
Ellison et al., 2015). “Online, researchers can share what they have learnt and practiced in
their work as well as what they have produced as written communication”(Alshahrani and
Rasmussen Pennington, 2018, p. 1275).
Previous studies have investigated either how social media platforms facilitate knowledge
sharing or the factors that affect this use (e.g. Bilgihan et al., 2016; Cheung et al., 2013; Cho et al.,
2010; Eid and Al-Jabri, 2016; Kwahk and Park, 2016; Ma et al., 2014; Oh and Syn, 2015), but
these areas need more investigation, as the research is still in its early stages (Edwards et al.,
2017; Panahi et al., 2012b; Razmerita et al., 2014). Moreover, not all researchers use it effectively
for sharing knowledge (Greifeneder et al., 2018). This may be due to weaknesses in their
self-efficacy, which is considered to be one of the most important factors that influence the use
of social media for knowledge sharing (Cheung et al., 2013; Cho et al., 2010; Kwahk and Park,
2016; Vuori and Okkonen, 2012). Defined as “a judgment of one’s capability to accomplish a
certain level of performance”(Bandura, 1986, p. 391), individuals construct and obtain
self-efficacy from four main sources: performance accomplishments, vicarious experience,
verbal persuasion and emotional arousal (Bandura, 1977). In this paper, self-efficacy
specifically refers to researchers’ability to use social media effectively for sharing knowledge.
The first part of this larger study investigated these sources and their impact on researchers’
use of social media for knowledge sharing through semi-structured qualitative interviews
(Alshahrani and Rasmussen Pennington, 2018). The current paper builds on the qualitative
results with a quantitative approach to gain a broader perspective on the topic.
2. Literature review
2.1 Self-efficacy and its sources
Self-efficacy is one of the two most important elements of social cognitive theory (Bandura,
1986). Its focus is on the capability of individuals to achieve a certain level of performance
(Bandura, 1986). The importance of self-efficacy and its impact on behaviours and skills
have been widely investigated by several studies (e.g. Celik and Yesilyurt, 2013;
Gegenfurtner et al., 2013; Pajares and Kranzler, 1994; Pajares and Miller, 1994, 1995).
The importanceof self-efficacy may include improvingperformance (Bandura, 1977, 1986;
Wiedenbeck,2005; Wiedenbeck et al., 2004), achieving goals (Bandura, 1994),expending effort
(Askar and Davenport, 2009; Bandura, 1977, 1982, 1986, 1994), facing challenges and
difficulties (Bandura, 1977, 1982, 1986, 1994), maintaining resilience after failures (Bandura,
1994) and makingdecisions (Askar and Davenport,2009; Bandura, 1977, 1982, 1986).Bandura
(1994) said: “self-efficacy affects life choices, level of motivation, quality of functioning,
resilience to adversity and vulnerability to stress and depression”(p. 80).
As stated previously, self-efficacy has four sources which individuals are responsible for
constructing (Bandura, 1977). Personal mastery experiences refer to past experiences that
positively or negatively influence individuals’perceived ability (Alshahrani and Rasmussen
Pennington, 2018). It is the most influential source in building confidence for individuals
(Hendricks, 2016).
The second source, vicarious experience, is “the mimicry of other researchers who effectively
use social media for knowledge sharing by observing their performance and successes, and then
attempting to replicate their behaviours”(Alshahrani and Rasmussen Pennington, 2018,
p. 1275). Individuals can build their self-efficacy indirectly by observing others’activities
(Bandura, 1977), which can lead them to believe that they are able to do what others do.
Verbal persuasion, the third source, refers to encouragement received from colleagues,
friends, family and institutions (Alshahrani and Rasmussen Pennington, 2018; Bandura,
1977). This encouragement motivates individuals to believe that they have the ability to
achieve a high level of performance (Tschannen-Moran and McMaster, 2009).
The final source, emotional arousal, refers to psychological reactions and feelings
towards the activity. It can create psychologically stressful situations for individuals,
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