Assessing Effects of Media Affordances and Information Security Awareness on Knowledge-Sharing in Global Software Development

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of media affordances and information security awareness on knowledge-sharing behavior among global software development (GSD) team members. Using survey data collected from 214 GSD team members, we identify three organizational media affordances based on prior affordance literature: awareness, searchability, and editability. Positive relationships are found between perceived media affordances and actualized media affordances. Two actualized affordances, awareness and editability, have significant relationships with knowledge-sharing behavior that are moderated by awareness of information security. We further find that occupational culture due to region affects some relationships among media affordances and knowledge-sharing behavior. This study contributes to the affordance literature by identifying the organizational media affordances related to knowledge-sharing behavior and showing that users' awareness of information security moderates the relationships of these media affordances on knowledge-sharing. This study provides managerial insights into how media's technical properties and users' awareness of information security shape members' knowledge-sharing.