Towards a Model of Collaborative Intention: An Empirical Investigation of a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC)

Disentangling factors that affect one’s intention to collaborate is an important endeavor for management education, especially for globally dispersed groups of students. Drawing on a synthesis of four theories, we advance a model of collaboration intentions that embodies both individual and communal level drivers of individuals’ intention to participate in virtual collaboration. The model is validated based on data collected from 2,517 participants in a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC). Results demonstrate that attitudes towards virtual collaboration are predicted by both collaborative outcome expectancy and communal support expectancy. Additionally, we reveal that collaborative outcome expectancy is predicated on individuals’ belief about his/her ability to collaborate whereas communal support expectancy is impacted by the individual’s perception of communal influence.