Knowledge popularity in a heterogeneous network: Exploiting the contextual effects of document popularity in knowledge management systems

In organizations, the amount of attention that user-generated knowledge receives in knowledge management systems (KMSs) may not imply its potential for benefiting organizational activities in terms of accelerating innovation and product development. To optimize the utilization of knowledge in organizations, it is crucial to identify factors that influence knowledge popularity. From a network perspective, this study proposes a model to evaluate knowledge popularity by investigating 2 attributes of contextual information (i.e., authors and tags) that are embedded in a heterogeneous knowledge network, and how they interact to impact knowledge popularity. Objective data obtained through the interaction history of a KMS in a global telecommunication company was applied to test the hypotheses. This paper contributes to the extant literature on knowledge popularity by identifying contextual attributions of knowledge, and empirically tests the impact of their interactions on knowledge popularity.