Social capital and knowledge sharing among consumers in virtual communities: psychological ownership’s mediating effect

This study takes psychological ownership as a mediating variable and uncivilized behavior control as a regulating variable between psychological ownership and knowledge sharing behaviors in order to explore the relationship between social capital and knowledge sharing among consumers in virtual communities. Questionnaires are used in this paper which show that structural capital, cognitive capital, and relational capital have a positive impact on psychological ownership, that psychological ownership has a positive impact on knowledge sharing among consumers, that psychological ownership plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between social capital and knowledge sharing among consumers, and that uncivilized behavior control plays a regulating role in the quality of psychological ownership and knowledge sharing. The conclusions have important theoretical significance for deepening the theory of knowledge sharing among consumers and psychological ownership. It is suggested that enterprise managers promote consumers' participation in virtual community activities by regulating their psychological ownership and applying appropriate uncivilized behavior control measures.