Factor Retention Decisions in Exploratory Factor Analysis Results : A Study Type of Knowledge Management Process at Malaysian University Libraries

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a versatile statistical modeling tool which uses in the social sciences research. Recently, in Library and Information Science (LIS) environment, structural equation modeling has gained popularity across many disciplines, due to its generality and flexibility. Its estimation techniques, modeling capabilities and breadth of application are expanding rapidly. This paper reported a structural equation modeling through an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) result, which involves 300 lead users at six selected Malaysian university libraries through survey. The decision of how many factors to retain is a critical component of exploratory factor analysis. Evidence is presented that parallel analysis is one of the most accurate factor retention methods. SPSS 20 was utilized to analyze the factor analysis data. In this regards, the results of EFA could provide empirical evidence of each hypotheses construct. It is hoped that the EFA results could be used to level Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to perform full Structural Equation Modeling.


Introduction
Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is an extension of the general linear model (GLM) that enables a researcher to test a set of regression equation simultaneously.Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is a technique used for specifying and estimating models of linear relationships among variables (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson & Tatham, 2006;MacCallum & Austin, 2000).More specifically, various theoretical models can be tested in SEM that hypothesis how sets of variables define constructs and how these constructs are related to each other (Schumacker & Lomax, 2004).The use of structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques in this study is the most suitable way to evaluate the fit of the proposed model (Hair et al., 2006;MacCallum & Austin, 2000;Schumacker & Lomax, 2004).In addition, Hair et al. stated that SEM is a "new analytical tool" which in the recent decade, gains a wider acceptance to be "the dominant multivariate technique" in academic and social science studies.In fact, SEM is also a technique which has many advantageous capabilities such as SEM is able to estimate multiple and interrelated dependence relationships; it is able to characterize unobserved conceptions in these relationships; it is capable to correct measurement errors in estimation processes; and it is capable to identify a model describes the whole set of relationships.This research aimed to utilize SEM to evaluate KM processes type measurement through EFA for each of one process that could be retained.One major reason for SEM being applied in this study is due to its ability to execute simultaneous multiple assessments comprehensively (Hair et al., 2006).In addition to, Schumacker and Lomax (2004) note that researchers which use SEM are becoming more aware of the need to use multiple observed variables to better understand their area.
Factor analysis is a statistical approaches that can be used to analyzed interrelationships among large number of variables (Geldhof, Preacher & Zyphur, 2013;Hair et al., 2006;Schumacker & Lomax, 2004).According to Hair et al., these explain variables in terms of their common underlying dimensions (factors).The objective of factor analysis is to considering a way the information contained in a number of original variables into a smaller set of factor with a minimum loss of information (Hair et al., 2006).With factor analysis, the researcher or analyst can identify the separate dimensions of the structure and then determine the extent to which each variable is explained by each dimension.Given the perspective that there is no true model, the search for the correct number of factors in EFA would seem to be a pointless undertaking (Preacher, Zhang, Kim & Mels, 2013).According to Cattell (1966), if the common factor model is correct in a given setting, it can be argued that the correct number of factors is at least much larger than the number and likely infinite.In this regards, Cattell (1966) emphasized that the researcher or analyst should consider not the correct number of factors but rather the number of factors that are worthwhile to retain.With this regards, the objectives of this paper are formulated as follows: RO1.To investigate the process type and level of knowledge management practices in the library.

RO2.
To compare significant relationships between knowledge creation, knowledge acquisition, knowledge capture, knowledge sharing, knowledge record and knowledge preserving associated with Knowledge management practices.

RO3.
To evaluated the significant influential relationship between KM practices and library users' satisfaction.
However, the EFA has been applied to the following hypotheses and intends to test the seven hypothetical statements.
H 1-There is a significant influence of Knowledge Creation (KCr) on KM Practices.
H 2-There is a significant influence of Knowledge Acquisition (KAc) on KM Practices.
H 3 -There is a significant influence of Knowledge Capture (KCa) on KM Practices.
H 4-There is a significant influence of Knowledge Sharing (KSh) on KM Practices.
H 5-There is a significant influence of Knowledge Record (KRe) on KM Practices.
H 6-There is a significant influence of Knowledge Preserving (KPr) on KM Practices.
H 7-There is a significant influence of KM Practices on Library Users' Satisfaction.
In Malaysia, the academic library has been described as the "heart" of the learning community where it providing a place for students and faculty to do their research and advance their knowledge.Most of the early studies by Lowenthal (1990) and Tyckoson (1992) focus on assessing reference services then later studies by Edward and Browne (1995).Whilst, studies done by Kulthau (1993) introduces the concept of bibliographic instruction in helping users locate sources and to reduce uncertainties, which is felt when seeking for information and is considered as an influencing factor when judging quality reference service.In fact, Kulthau also brings in the human factor in measuring performance as she finds that the placement of student reference assistance could only result in the solution to 36% of reference enquiries and unprofessional staff's handling of reference enquiries is not satisfactory to users.Other studies have included collection sizes and budget allocations as predictors of effective service (Broady-Preston & Preston, 1999).In recent decades, knowledge management (KM) has been perceived as another potential viable response to the challenges that the LIS profession is facing in a continuously changing environment (Fagbola, Uzoigwe & Ajegbomogun, 2011;Khangala, 2004;Kumar, 2010;Maponya, 2004;Mavodza, 2010;Morris, 2001;Sarrafzadeh, Martin & Hazeri, 2010).In this situation, LIS professionals' expertise in knowledge organization, information professionals have been encouraged to make a serious contribution to the practice of KM in their organizations (Sarrafzadeh, Martin & Hazeri, 2006;Sarrafzadeh et al., 2010).Therefore, there is a need for studies on KM practices and Library User Satisfaction to substantial the gap at Malaysian university libraries because of the library collection services rated almost average by its users.Maponya (2004) revealed that academic library collections are no longer collections comprised almost entirely of printed materials but collections comprised almost of materials in multiple formats and media.In fact recently, Information Technologies (IT) such as computers, multimedia and CD-ROMs are bringing unprecedented abilities to academic libraries in providing services and resources to the university community.Therefore, the printed version of library collections has been converted into digital form from time to time.This is what the results from User Satisfaction Survey was carried out.An average results from earlier user satisfaction survey indicates that librarians and library, maybe not aware with the linking of KM practices towards user satisfaction.These technologies however, require greater responsibility to academic librarians.The challenge for academic librarians is to manage Library Collections, which offer users a carefully selected mix of multiple formats and media.Academic libraries should rethink their role in the whole university community.
However, there is a need to support the needs of the users since the teaching and learning patterns in universities changed.With the same school of thought with Maponya, Foo et al. (2002) stresses that one main challenge facing academic libraries in the networked online environment is to exploit all forms of digital and telecommunication technologies and find new ways and means to provide feasible forms of collections, services and access to library materials.Foo et al. (2002) state that as academic libraries become more involved with information infrastructure building, it is appropriate to iterate the four main components of information organizations in the information age such as software, hardware, human resources and data/information.Different organizational cultures in such situations must be addressed to ensure the success of these mergers.In other words, academic librarians should extend their information management roles and enhance their knowledge management competencies.It is important for academic libraries to determine, manage and focus their knowledge assets (i.e.library collections) to avoid duplication of efforts.Knowledge management process involves the creation, acquisition, capturing, sharing, record and preserving of knowledge.

Methods
A set of questionnaire developed in this study was based on the comprehensive literature review (see Appendix) to set a measurement standard to construct structural model fitted.Every each of items develops were used unique code namely KCr1, KCr2, KCr3, KCr4, KCr5 and KCr6 as Knowledge Creation.During this study, EFA is used to explore the possible relationships in only the most general form to allow multivariate technique to estimate a relationship(s) (Hair et al., 2006).The items defining each research construct in this study were developed on the basis of theoretical rationale.Through EFA on a sample of data, the SPSS will generate and find the number of every latent variable in plausible model in this study.Hair et al. (2006) state that EFA is recommended as a precursor to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in this study.However, EFA was not used to explore the number of factors for research constructs, but rather to address and examine the unidimensionality of the constructs prior to the application of CFA.Next, Hair et al. (2006) suggests the Bartlett test of sphericity, a statistical test for presence of correlation among variable.In this study, a measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) tests was performed using EFA to ensure that the variables are sufficiently intercorrelated to produce representative factors.In the SPSS software, the MSA is measured by the value of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and the factorability of the correlation matrix is assumed if the Bartlett's test of sphericity is statistically significant (i.e., p < 0.05) and the MSA value is greater than 0.50 (Hair et al., 2006).

Results
Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) has widely been suggested as the appropriate tool when a theory is absent or new scales are being developed (Hair et al., 2006;Schumacker & Lomax, 2004).These identified factors are tested by using EFA method to examine their construct validity (Schumacker & Lomax, 2004).These factors are (1) Knowledge Creation, (2) Knowledge Acquisition, (3) Knowledge Capture, (4) Knowledge Sharing, (5) Knowledge Record, (6) Knowledge Preserving and (7) Library users' satisfaction.The exploratory factor analysis is done by applying the SPSS version 20.The objective of executing the EFA is twofold: (1) to attain good constructs' validity at this preliminary level and (2) to ensure only variables with high factor loading are retained.

EFA for Knowledge Creation
Four variables from the knowledge creation factor are tested with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and the Bartlett's test of Sphericity.Results of the KMO and Bartlett's test are shown in Table 1..000 The KMO measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) results is 0.735.This indicates good partial correlation exhibited in the data for this study.Tabachnick and Fidell (2007) and Hair, et al. (2006) stated that the MSA must exceed 0.50.The Bartlett's test of Sphericity result is 0.0001 which means very significant.According to Hair, et al. (2006) states the significant level of p at less than 0.05.The small value (0.0001) indicates that there exist sufficient correlations among variables of knowledge creation factor.Therefore, the variables of knowledge creation factor explain 45.3% of variance as shown in Table 2.As such, all variables of knowledge creation factor have loading value higher than 0.50 as shown in Table 3.3.Hair, et al. (2006) stated that each individual variable must have value 0.5 and above.Therefore, these values indicate that they are highly interrelated with each other.

EFA for Knowledge Acquisition
Five variables from the knowledge acquisition factor are tested with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and the Bartlett's test of Sphericity.Results of the KMO and Bartlett's test are shown in Table 4. .000 The KMO measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) results is 0.767.This indicates good partial correlation exhibited in the data for this study.The Bartlett's test of Sphericity result is 0.0001 which means very significant.
The significant level of p is less than 0.05.The small value (0.0001) indicates that there exist sufficient correlations among variables of knowledge acquisition factor.Therefore, the variables of knowledge creation factor explain 52.3% of variance as shown in Table 5. .000 The KMO measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) results is 0.769.This indicates good partial correlation exhibited in the data for this study.The Bartlett's test of Sphericity result is 0.0001 which means very significant.The significant level of p is less than 0.05.The small value (0.0001) indicates that there exist sufficient correlations among variables of knowledge acquisition factor.Therefore, the variables of knowledge capture factor explain 56.4% of variance as shown in Table 8.

EFA for Knowledge Sharing
Six variables from the knowledge sharing factor are tested with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and the Bartlett's test of Sphericity.Results of the KMO and Bartlett's test are shown in Table 10..000 The KMO measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) results is 0.821.This indicates strong partial correlation exhibited in the data for this study.The Bartlett's test of Sphericity result is 0.0001 which means very significant.The significant level of p is less than 0.05.The small value (0.0001) indicates that there exist sufficient correlations among variables of knowledge acquisition factor.Therefore, the variables of knowledge sharing factor explain 49.8% of variance as shown in Table 11.All variables of knowledge sharing factor have loading value higher than 0.50 as shown in Table 12.Therefore, these values indicate that they are highly interrelated with each other.However, these KSh5 factor is usually not stable because it's account to have probable error of variance.

EFA for Knowledge Record
Six variables from the knowledge record factor are tested with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and the Bartlett's test of Sphericity.Results of the KMO and Bartlett's test are shown in Table 13..000 The KMO measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) results is 0.869.This indicates strong partial correlation exhibited in the data for this study.The Bartlett's test of Sphericity result is 0.0001 which means very significant.The significant level of p is less than 0.05.The small value (0.0001) indicates that there exist sufficient correlations among variables of knowledge acquisition factor.Therefore, the variables of knowledge record factor explain 59.9% of variance as shown in Table 14.

EFA for Knowledge Preserving
Five variables from the knowledge preserving factor are tested with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and the Bartlett's test of Sphericity.Results of the KMO and Bartlett's test are shown in Table 16..000 The KMO measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) results is 0.799.This indicates good partial correlation exhibited in the data for this study.The Bartlett's test of Sphericity result is 0.0001 which means very significant.The significant level of p is less than 0.05.The small value (0.0001) indicates that there exist sufficient correlations among variables of knowledge acquisition factor.Therefore, the variables of knowledge preserving factor explain 56.9% of variance as shown in Table 17.All variables of knowledge preserving factor have loading value higher than 0.50 as shown in Table 18.Therefore, these values indicate that they are highly interrelated with each other.

EFA for Library Users' Satisfaction
Six variables from the library users' satisfaction factor are tested with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and the Bartlett's test of Sphericity.Results of the KMO and Bartlett's test are shown in Table 19..000 The KMO measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) results is 0.821.This indicates strong partial correlation exhibited in the data for this study.The Bartlett's test of Sphericity result is 0.0001 which means very significant.The significant level of p is less than 0.05.The small value (0.0001) indicates that there exist sufficient correlations among variables of knowledge acquisition factor.Therefore, the variables of library users' satisfaction factor explain 51.0% of variance as shown in Table 20.

Discussion
After presenting the analyses, three important results have been shown.Firstly, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measures of sampling adequacy for knowledge creation, knowledge acquisition, knowledge capture, knowledge sharing, knowledge record, knowledge preserving and library users' satisfaction factors) are within the required range.Therefore, the KMO value of 0.70 and above indicates strong partial correlation and is suitable for factor analysis (Hair et al., 2006).The KMO values are 0.735, 0.767, 0.769, 0.826, 0.869, 0.799, and 0.821 for knowledge creation, knowledge acquisition, knowledge capture, knowledge sharing, knowledge record, knowledge preserving and library users' satisfaction factors respectively.The highest KMO value is 0.869 (knowledge record factor).The lowest KMO value is 0.735 (knowledge creation factor).Thus, all factors will be included in the further analysis.All Bartlett's tests of Sphericity have shown good results.All small values which less than 0.05 indicate that there are significant relationships among variables (Hair et al., 2006;Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007).Lastly, EFA for all factors (knowledge creation, knowledge acquisition, knowledge capture, knowledge sharing, knowledge record, knowledge preserving, and library users' satisfaction factors) attain good loadings to become a factor retention.The value of loadings for all indicators are above 0.50 (good level), except for one indicator.There is indicator of KSh5 (0.405) from the knowledge sharing process factor.This indicator was excluded from the subsequent SEM analysis due to overlaps factor loading (less than 0.5).The low factor loadings indicate that the explained variance is much less in the measure than the error variance.In these instances, the researcher or analyst requires that exploratory factor analysis take into confirmatory approach, that is, access the degree to which data meet the expected structure of the analyst.especially in Library and Information Science (LIS) environment.The authors also wish to thank the editor for the extensive assistance in the final revision of this paper for publication.

KCr5
Knowledge creation implies more participation of library users.

KCr6
Knowledge creation involves all the management effort.

Items
Question SD D M A SA KAc1 I feel that knowledge acquisition needs to be among the goal of my University Library.

KAc2
I feel that my University library as an organization may need to look outside its own boundaries to outsource or acquire new knowledge.

KAc3
I believe that the library can acquire knowledge through training programs, conferences, seminars and workshops.

KAc4
My University Library uses to buy products or resources in the form of manuals, blueprints, reports and research reports for their students.

KAc5
I know that University Library is subscribing to online databases, electronic journals and electronic books for Communities of Practice.

Items
Question SD D M A SA KCa1 I feel that my University Library should develop ways of capturing internal knowledge to identify people's expertise.

KCa2
I feel that my University Library needs to be aware of the aim for capturing the knowledge that exists within them.

KCa3
My University library streamlines its day-to-day operations towards capturing institutional memory (books, documents, videos, databases, etc.) KCa4 I know that University library is the central department to initiate knowledge capture.

KCa5
I know that if the knowledge capture is organized, it would be easier for me to identify and use the knowledge.

KSh1
My University library encourages sharing culture within Communities of Practice (CoP).

KSh2
My University library encourages student to provide feedbacks; whenever I attended conferences, workshops, seminars or training.

KSh3
My University library encourages the use of Institutional Repository (IR) to share the knowledge within the university communities.

KSh4
I know that my University library encourages the use of face-to-face conversations inclusive of meetings, gatherings, discussions, etc.

KSh5
I feel that my University library needs to promote sharing activity among librarians, student, staffs etc.

KSh6
My University library staff always prepared themselves with useful knowledge and willing to share when needed.

Items
Question SD D M A SA KRe1 I know that my University library streamlines its daily operations to record institutional memory (documents, videos, theses, patents, etc.)

KRe2
My University library records and organizes library special collection.

KRe3
I feel that my University library do the record keeping guided by level of confidentiality, security, etc.

[
] Knowledge Record [ ] Knowledge Preserving 7. "Knowledge Record (KRe)" and "Knowledge Preserving (KPr)" is good to be practiced in the university/academic libraries?[ ] Strongly Disagree [ ] Disagree [ ] Moderate [ ] Agree [ ] Strongly Agree Part B. Knowledge Management Process For each statement, please indicate by ticking [  ] in the box that best matches the degree of its impact according to your experience.my University Library creates new knowledge.KCr2I believe that my University Library uses students' feedback for knowledge creation.KCr3I feel that my University Library needs to manage consciously and explicitly the processes associated with the creation of knowledge.KCr4I feel that knowledge creation process typically involves a number of individuals.

Table 1 .
KMO and Bartlett's test of variables for the knowledge creation

Table 2 .
Total variance explained for variables of the knowledge creation factor

Table 3 .
Component matrix of the knowledge creation factor variables

Table 4 .
KMO and Bartlett's test of variables for the knowledge acquisition

Table 5 .
Total variance explained for variables of the knowledge acquisition factor All variables of knowledge acquisition factor have loading value higher than 0.50 as shown in Table6.Therefore, these values indicate that they are highly interrelated with each other.

Table 6 .
Component matrix of the knowledge acquisition factor variablesFive variables from the knowledge capture factor are tested with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and the Bartlett's test of Sphericity.Results of the KMO and Bartlett's test are shown in Table7.

Table 7 .
KMO and Bartlett's test of variables for the knowledge capture

Table 8 .
Total variance explained for variables of the knowledge capture factor All variables of knowledge capture factor have loading value higher than 0.50 as shown in Table9.Therefore, these values indicate that they are highly interrelated with each other.

Table 9 .
Component matrix of the knowledge capture factor variables

Table 10 .
KMO and Bartlett's test of variables for the knowledge sharing

Table 11 .
Total variance explained for variables of the knowledge sharing factor

Table 12 .
Component matrix of the knowledge sharing factor variables

Table 13 .
KMO and Bartlett's test of variables for the knowledge record

Table 14 .
Total variance explained for variables of the knowledge record factor All variables of knowledge record factor have loading value higher than 0.50 as shown in Table15.Therefore, these values indicate that they are highly interrelated with each other.

Table 15 .
Component matrix of the knowledge record variables

Table 16 .
KMO and Bartlett's test of variables for the knowledge preserving

Table 17 .
Total variance explained for variables of the knowledge preserving factor

Table 18 .
Component matrix of the knowledge preserving variables

Table 19 .
KMO and Bartlett's test of variables for the library users' satisfaction

Table 20 .
Total variance explained for variables of the library users' satisfaction factor All variables of knowledge preserving factor have loading value higher than 0.50 as shown in Table21.Therefore, these values indicate that they are highly interrelated with each other.

Table 21 .
Component matrix of the library users' satisfaction variables