The Value of Trust in Knowledge Sharing

Abstract

Knowledge sharing is currently at the forefront of research in the areas of organizational management and electronic business. Research has focused on aspects of knowledge sharing such as trust, quality of knowledge shared, and task complexity. This chapter builds on past inquiries of trust in knowledge sharing by examining how the benefits obtained from knowledge sharing change as trust levels change. A Repeated Measures ANOVA design is used to test the impact of trust on knowledge sharing. Task completion time, the dependent variable, measures the effect of knowledge sharing. Statistical analysis suggests that the benefit obtained from knowledge sharing increases as trust level increases.