Influence of usefulness and incentives on knowledge contribution and reuse

In this study, we explore the effect of incentives, along with the effect of the usefulness of a knowledge management system on intent to contribute and intent to reuse knowledge, controlling for personal characteristics, specifically an individual's tolerance of ambiguity. We find that an incentive mechanism that rewards (1) the contributor for shared knowledge re-used by a knowledge user, and (2) the knowledge re-user for the act of re-use, is more effective than a simpler incentive scheme that merely rewards knowledge sharing in environments consisting of individuals with the ability to handle high ambiguity in work situations (when usefulness level is low). Lower ambiguity tolerant individuals react equally to both types of incentive schemes regardless of usefulness.