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Effectively engaging patients is critical for the sustainable development of online health communities (OHCs). Although physicians’ general knowledge-sharing, which is free to the public, represents essential resources of OHCs that have been shown to promote patient engagement, little is known about whether such knowledge-sharing can backfire when superfluous knowledge-sharing is perceived as overwhelming and anxiety-provoking. Thus, this study aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of the role of general knowledge-sharing in OHCs by exploring the spillover effects of the depth and breadth of general knowledge-sharing on patient engagement.

The research model is established based on a knowledge-based view and the literature on knowledge-sharing in OHCs. Then the authors test the research model and associated hypotheses with objective data from a leading OHC.

Although counterintuitive, the findings revealed an inverted U-shape relationship between general knowledge-sharing (depth and breadth of knowledge-sharing) and patient engagement that is positively associated with physicians’ number of patients. Specifically, the positive effects of depth and breadth of general knowledge-sharing increase and then decrease as the quantity of general knowledge-sharing grows. In addition, physicians’ offline and online professional status negatively moderated these curvilinear relationships.

This study further enriches the literature on knowledge-sharing and the operations of OHCs from a novel perspective while also offering significant specific implications for OHCs practitioners.

The library and information science profession finds itself grappling with substantial difficulties and hurdles when addressing the trustworthiness and accuracy of information disseminated through social media platforms. This study aims to highlight the educational authority of librarians and propose a framework for librarians to establish their identity, understand the meaning behind their practice and integrate their expertise through knowledge practices, ensuring their relevance and effectiveness in the social media environment.

This study delves into a conceptual framework rooted in philosophical inquiry, seeking to establish a harmonious connection between interrelated concepts of civic roles, professional identity and knowledge practices. It draws upon both original research findings and a review of existing literature in the field.

Civic responsibilities reflect the professional identities of librarians. Evidence of knowledge practices collected from scientific literature emerged to be the important characterization of how librarians uphold their image as educational authorities. It describes the meaning of civic roles and professional practice.

The study sheds light on how librarians maintain their reputation as educators and the knowledge practices that underpin their civic responsibilities amidst the pervasiveness of information disorders.

The framework presented in the study offers a timely and relevant contribution to the complex realm of social media information disorders, a challenge that librarians grapple with regularly. It highlights the emerging role of librarians in society to assert their identity and recognize their civic responsibility in addressing this pressing issue that society faces.

Prior studies on the impact of incentives on physicians’ online participation mainly focused on different incentives while ignoring the difficulty of setting monetary incentives efficiently. Based on goal-setting theory, the current research examines the relationship between incentives with goals of varying difficulty and professional health knowledge sharing (PHKS) in online health knowledge-sharing platforms (OHKSPs).

Four field experiments with different monetary incentives were conducted by one of China’s largest OHKSPs, with whom the researchers cooperated in data collection. Monthly panel data on 10,584 physicians were collected from September 2018 to December 2019. There were 9,376 physicians in the treatment group and 1,208 in the control group. The authors used a difference-in-difference (DID) model to explore the research question based on the same control group and the Chow test with seemingly unrelated estimation (sureg) to compare regression coefficients between four groups. Several robustness checks were performed to validate the main results, including a relative time model, multiple falsification tests and a DID estimation using the propensity score matching method.

The results show that the monetary incentive significantly positively affected the volume of physicians’ PHKS directly with negative spillover to the duration of physicians’ PHKS. Moreover, the positive effect of incentives with higher difficulty on the volume of physicians’ PHKS was significantly smaller than that of incentives with low difficulty. Finally, professional title had a positive moderating effect on the volume of goal difficulty setting and did not significantly moderate the effect on the duration of physicians’ PHKS.

Some limitations of this study are: firstly, because the field experiments were enterprise benefit oriented, the treatment and control groups were not balanced. Secondly, the experiments for different incentive measures were relatively similar, making it challenging to validate a causal effect. Finally, more consideration should be given to the strategy for setting hierarchical incentives in future research.

The research indicates that monetary incentives have a bilateral effect on PHKS, i.e. a positive direct effect on the volume of physicians’ contributions and a negative spillover effect on the duration of physicians’ PHKS. The professional titles of physicians also moderate such bilateral switches of PHKS. Furthermore, when a physician’s energy is limited, the goal difficulty setting of the incentive mechanism tends to be low. The more difficult the incentives are, the more inefficient the effects on physicians’ PHKS will be.

The purpose of this study is to analyse historical events to argue the improbable prospect of radical accounting reform in corporate financial reporting (CFR) due to the absence of abstract accounting knowledge as part of accountancy professionalisation (AP).

A historical database of CFR and AP events in the UK is categorised and analysed to observe the evolution of accounting in CFR from the perspective of the sociology of professions relating to abstract knowledge in professionalisation.

CFR has always been a statutory function in the UK dependent on arbitrary accounting rules rather than expert measurements based on abstract accounting knowledge. Accounting rules have evolved as part of AP and currently form part of the statutory regulation of CFR. The accountancy profession has eschewed abstract accounting knowledge in a mutually beneficial and uncompetitive relationship with the law profession in CFR.

The study is limited to the history of CFR and AP in the UK and its findings are contrary to the sociology of professions regarding abstract knowledge, consistent with the accountancy profession’s 19th-century experience of court-related services, and indicative of normative accounting research’s redundancy.

Regarding CFR and AP in the UK, the accountancy profession is an expert subordinate branch of the law profession and has no incentive to alter the status quo of statutory accounting rule compliance prevailing over abstract accounting knowledge-based expertise in CFR.

The study questions the optimism of prior research of accounting in CFR that suggests the possibility of radical reform using abstract knowledge.

As universities find new ways of implementing professional development programs (PDPs), very few scholarly studies have examined how teachers could advance their knowledge and skills through PDPs that are developed based on nonformal learning approaches. To address this knowledge gap, the current study examines how PDPs could be facilitated using nonformal learning approaches to enhance the current and future professional practice of teachers in a South African University.

Data for the current study were gathered using semistructured face-to-face interviews among 28 teachers who were purposively sampled from the university. The interview data gathered were analyzed using thematic analysis.

The four themes that emerged from the narrative data analyzed were: developing teacher professional practice through diverse nonformal learning arrangements; challenges associated with PDPs that are designed using nonformal learning arrangements; teacher rationale for participating in PDPs that follow nonformal learning arrangements and; the role of leadership in professional development. The findings reveal that nonformal approaches are used widely in the professional development of teachers and teachers have diverse reasons for joining PDPs. Further, leadership also plays a major role in the professional development of teachers.

When HEIs use nonformal learning approaches to facilitate PDPs, they could 1) enable teachers to easily transfer the knowledge they acquire from the PDPs to the teaching and learning setting and 2) create a situated learning environment where experienced teachers and other experts support the professional development of young teachers.

This paper presents original ideas on how nonformal learning approaches could be used to facilitate PDPs and to enhance the professional practice of teachers in HEIs.

As knowledge management increasingly becomes critical for the success of professional service firms, this paper uses social exchange theory to investigate the interactive impact of transformational leadership and organizational innovation on online knowledge sharing by employees in professional service firms. This study aims to investigate the mediating roles of job autonomy and job engagement in this process.

Data were collected from a survey of 350 frontline employees in professional service providers, including banking, telecommunication and insurance. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

The results show that transformational leadership positively affects job autonomy, which in turn has a positive impact on online knowledge sharing through job engagement. Thus, job autonomy and job engagement mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and online knowledge sharing. Finally, organizational innovation moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and job autonomy.

This paper extends the knowledge management literature by studying the impact of transformational leadership on the online knowledge-sharing behavior and exploring the focal roles of job autonomy and job engagement in online-sharing behavior in professional service firms. The findings also provide useful implications for practitioners to help them engage employees in the adoption of digital technologies to optimize outcomes.

This study is carried out to evaluate how well legal knowledge can be demonstrated by a built environment professional via the scenario-based approach to the learning of law modules.

A Delphi analysis of the advice provided by an MSC quantity surveying student, on a scenario-based legal problem arising due to a property contract, is carried out. The tendered legal advice was submitted as part of the assessment requirements for an MSc law module, following the university criteria, after the teaching of a law module. The student report, which attained an A-grade, and the assessment criteria used for marking/grading by the university were subsequently sent to 18 practicing lawyers, who were selected to constitute an expert panel, to independently judge the extent of legal knowledge demonstrated in the student report.

The Delphi analysis outcome showed that the expert panel holds a similar consensus view to the university on the level of legal knowledge demonstrated and by extension the effectiveness of the law module in imparting legal knowledge to a non-lawyer. The study outcome shows how well legal knowledge can be acquired and applied by a non-lawyer, within the context of the built environment, via scenario-based teaching of a law module.

This study serves as a preliminary step necessary to arouse further research toward empirically profiling the current outlook of a wider range of graduating students receiving scenario-based legal education in the built environment.

This article aims to present a unique dimension to mentor studies in that unlike most research that focuses on the novice-teachers-mentee, this study explores the influence of mentoring on the mentors themselves. Two main questions were examined: “Which components of mentoring influence the mentors' professional development?” and “What is the differential impact of each of these components as they are internalized by the mentors?”

A total of 765 mentors completed a questionnaire composed of 47 multiple-choice questions and an open-ended question describing the contribution of mentoring. The survey thus generated both quantitative and qualitative data.

The results show three main components of mentoring that influence mentors' professional development in the following order: personal–emotional, didactic knowledge and systemic–organizational. The findings also illustrate how the mentors used a comparison process to develop their professional perception: first, by comparing their role as a teacher and their role as a mentor, and second, by comparing their own professional identity as a teacher with that of the novice-teacher.

The implications of the study point to the importance of mentoring for mentors' professional development. Practical implications of this study encourage mentor training courses that combine a body of knowledge of theory and practice, as well as supervision and mentoring for mentors. It may be important for mentors to develop a professional identity as mentors that is distinct from their professional identity as teachers.

The implications of the study point to the importance of mentoring for mentors' professional development. Practical implications of this study encourage mentor training courses that combine a body of knowledge of theory and practice, as well as supervision and mentoring for mentors. It may be important for mentors to develop a professional identity as mentors that is distinct from their professional identity as teachers.

The manuscript attempts to explore the dynamic relationships within the mentoring process by investigating how mentoring impacts the development of mentors. It presents insights into the benefits of mentoring novice-teachers for the mentors themselves via analysis of a large-scale, nationwide study.

As a kind of knowledge-intensive team coordinated across physical distance, it is necessary to construct a meta-knowledge driven transactive memory system (TMS) for the knowledge management of distributed agile team (DAT). This study aims to explore the comprehensive antecedents of TMS establishment in DATs and considers how TMS establishment is affected by herding behavior under the artificial intelligence (AI)-related knowledge work environment that emerges with technology penetration.

The data derived from 177 students of 52 DATs in a well-known Chinese business school, which were divided into 26 traditional knowledge work groups and 26 AI-related task groups to conduct a random comparative experiment. The ordinary least squares method was used to analyze the conceptual model and ANOVA was used to examine the differences in herding behavior between the control groups (traditional knowledge work DATs) and treatment groups (DATs engaged in AI-related knowledge work).

The results showed that knowledge diversity, professional knowledge, self-efficacy and social system use had significantly positive effects on the establishment of TMS. Interestingly, the authors also find that herding behavior may promote the process of establishing TMS of the new team, and this effect will be more significant when AI tasks are involved in team knowledge work.

By exploring the comprehensive antecedents of the establishment of TMS, this study provided a theoretical basis for knowledge management of DATs, especially in AI knowledge work teams. From a practical perspective, when the DAT is involved in AI-related knowledge works, managers should appropriately guide the convergence of employees’ behaviors and use the herding effects to accelerate the establishment of TMS, which will improve team knowledge sharing and innovation.

This study aims to assess the scholarly communication competence of Zambian library and information science (LIS) professionals by evaluating their awareness, knowledge and practices regarding scholarly publication.

Applying a quantitative research approach, the study used a specially designed questionnaire. Responses from 57 professionals across universities and colleges in Zambia were gathered using convenience sampling. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, mean and standard deviation calculations and t-values and p-values to understand respondents’ perceptions and knowledge of scholarly communication and publication.

The findings revealed significant gaps in respondents’ knowledge and awareness, particularly regarding predatory journals, journal selection factors, open-access models, publication challenges, reference management software (RMS) usage and research obstacles. The study underscored the necessity for increased training and capacity-building initiatives among Zambian LIS professionals to enhance their scholarly communication competence.

This research contributed to the field by highlighting deficiencies in scholarly communication awareness among Zambian LIS professionals. It emphasised the need for targeted interventions, awareness programs and educational support to improve academic literacy and scholarly publication practices. Additionally, the study suggested future research avenues, such as longitudinal studies and strategies for enhancing RMS adoption, to advance scholarly practices among Zambian professionals further.