Abstract:

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of cognitive style as a moderator, on the factors that affect academic staffs’ adoption and usage of online knowledge sharing technology in the context of research universities in Malaysia. To do so, the study integrated technology acceptance model, hedonic consumption model and cognitive style theory as the theoretical model in understanding the acceptance and usage of online knowledge sharing technology. The study was empirically evaluated using quantitative data from a sample of 321 academics from five research universities. Relevant information were collected through online survey submitted to all the chosen academics from the five research universities. In this study, cognitive style was used to explain its moderation effect on academics usage of online knowledge sharing technology. The result indicates that cognitive style failed to influence the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceive ease of use and usage of online knowledge sharing technology. However, the findings of the study showed that cognitive style is a moderator for the relationship between arousal and usage of online knowledge sharing technology. The finding of the study contribute both to the academic research, by making available to scholars on the empirical evidence on the moderating effect of cognitive style on factors that influence the usage of online knowledge sharing technology. To practice some guidelines to management team of research universities in particular and in general all universities on how to encourage academics to engage in using knowledge sharing technologies. Key Words: Usage of Knowledge Sharing Technology, Knowledge Sharing, Cognitive Style, Tam, and Research Universities.

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