Trust : its different facets as antecedents of knowledge sharing in virtual communities of practice

Understanding the role of trust in facilitating knowledge sharing behaviour within virtual communities of practice is an area that lacks both theoretical and empirical investigation. This research attempts to fill this gap by conceptualising trust across three dimensions: competence, integrity, and benevolence; testing hypotheses as to the effect of these facets of trust on knowledge sharing by surveying a virtual community of systems thinking practitioners within a global organisation that engages in information systems integration and IT outsourcing. The results indicate that all three dimensions of trust are positively related to knowledge sharing behaviour. The findings suggest that the dimensions of trust buttress each other. However, we highlight that further research is required to better understand the dynamics of trust within online communities. Nonetheless, this research challenges system developers to integrate trust-building functionality to enable history and transparency of data which provides confidence in future behaviours. Knowledge management practitioners also have to encourage competence, integrity and benevolence in employees, who are potential members of on-line communities of practice.