Employees’ system exploration behaviour is critical for contemporary firms to fully derive benefits from investments in an enterprise system (ES). Based on the adaptive structuration theory (AST), it is proposed that employees’ exploration of an ES is mainly influenced by three fundamental components at different theoretical levels: task, technology, and the organisational environment. Accordingly, we develop a multilevel research model to interpret how task variety, system modularity, and local management commitment jointly affect employees’ system exploration. Our model is tested with a survey of ES users in 35 business units of six firms that have already implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and several meaningful findings were discovered. At the individual level, both system modularity and task variety can directly affect employees’ system exploration, and the direct effect of system modularity is positively moderated by task variety. Further, unit-level local management commitment can either directly affect, or positively moderate, the relationship between task variety and system exploration. Limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.

This study investigates the motivational factors affecting the quantity and quality of voluntary knowledge contribution in online Q&A communities. Although previous studies focus on knowledge contribution quantity, this study regards quantity and quality as two important, yet distinct, aspects of knowledge contribution. Drawing on self‐determination theory, this study proposes that five motivational factors, categorized along the extrinsic‐intrinsic spectrum of motivation, have differential effects on knowledge contribution quantity versus quality in the context of online Q&A communities. An online survey with 367 participants was conducted in a leading online Q&A community to test the research model. Results show that rewards in the reputation system, learning, knowledge self‐efficacy, and enjoy helping stand out as important motivations. Furthermore, rewards in the reputation system, as a manifestation of the external regulation, is more effective in facilitating the knowledge contribution quantity than quality. Knowledge self‐efficacy, as a manifestation of intrinsic motivation, is more strongly related to knowledge contribution quality, whereas the other intrinsic motivation, enjoy helping, is more strongly associated with knowledge contribution quantity. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

With the recognition of the importance of organizational knowledge management (KM), researchers have paid increasing attention to knowledge management systems (KMS). However, since most prior studies were conducted in the context of Western societies, we know little about KMS diffusion in other regional contexts. Moreover, even with the increasing recognition of the influence of social factors in KM practices, there is a dearth of studies that examine how unique social cultural factors affect KMS diffusion in specific countries. To fill in this gap, this study develops an integrated framework, with special consideration on the influence of social cultures, to understand KMS diffusion in Chinese enterprises. In our framework, we examine how specific technological, organizational, and social cultural factors can influence the three-stage KMS diffusion process, that is, initiation, adoption, and routinization. This study provides a holistic view of the KMS diffusion in Chinese enterprises with practical guidance for successful KMS implementation.