Knowledge transfer to aid social coding: The case of Stack Overflow

Abstract

Focused online question and answer (Q&A) communities aid social coding. Despite the growing importance of social coding, knowledge transfer in this context remains under-researched. Our primary objective is to understand the knowledge transfer process in this context. We conceptualize knowledge transfer as a process that is impacted by the prior knowledge transfer interactions (network) among participants and is augmented by gamification. We argue that social capital resulting from prior knowledge transfer network interactions impact answer quality. Moreover, we also argue that the relationship between social capital and answer quality is moderated by the complexity of the knowledge transferred. Hence, our models draw from multiple related research streams: online communities, knowledge transfer, social capital, and gamification. These models are empirically tested using data from Stack Overflow (SO), a popular online Q&A community that aids social coding. Our results help to understand knowledge transfer in Q&A communities that aid social coding. Moreover, our results have implications for research on other types of Q&A communities and can inform development of platforms to support online communities.