Reputation Mechanism and Knowledge Sharing in Large Groups from Perspective of Evolutionary Game Theory

How to promote knowledge sharing in a group with a large number of members is a huge challenge for knowledge management. Reputation mechanism, a rule prescribing members a good or bad reputation according to their behaviors, is crucial for the collective behavior in a large group. From the perspective of evolutionary game theory, we study the evolution of group members' knowledge sharing under various types of reputation mechanisms. The reputation mechanisms that can realize sustained knowledge sharing are identified. Under those mechanisms, there are usually some evolutionary stable states in which all group members adopt some strategy and the best response of a member is the strategy which is used by all others. This research can provide some implications for the knowledge management in large communities.