Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the factors which influence biotechnology scientists’ data sharing intention. This study employed Ostrom’s theory of collective action. The target population of this study includes scientists and students of biotechnology field in South Korea. A total of 411 responses which collected by e-mail were used for the final data analysis. The summary of this study is as follows. First, norm of data sharing and academic reciprocity were found to have significant positive influences on data sharing intention directly. Second, perceived community trust was found to have significant positive influences on data sharing intention when academic reciprocity was the mediator. Third, academic reputation showed the moderating effects on the relationship between norm of data sharing and academic reciprocity, and between norm of data sharing and data sharing intention. These findings show that researchers can approach the data sharing behaviors by using the mechanism of trust, norms, reciprocity, and reputation and indicate necessity for a development of academic reputation system to promote more data sharing behaviors of researchers.