Knowledge sharing: influences of trust, commitment and cost

<jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>This paper's aim is to examine the influence of perceived cost of sharing knowledge and affective trust in colleagues on the relationship between affective commitment and knowledge sharing.</jats:italic></jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>The methodology used was a survey of 496 employees from 15 organizations across ten industries.</jats:italic></jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>Affective trust in colleagues moderates the relationship between affective commitment and knowledge sharing and the relationship between cost of knowledge sharing and knowledge sharing.</jats:italic></jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Research limitations/implications</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>Future researchers should operationalize the perceived cost of knowledge sharing construct to include other potential group barriers; for instance, politics and organizational barriers, management commitment and lack of trust.</jats:italic></jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Practical implications</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>The findings of this study suggest that employees who value social relationships and social resources tend to view knowledge as a collectively owned commodity. As such, their knowledge sharing behavior reflects the model of reciprocal social exchanges.</jats:italic></jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Social implications</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>The results of this study indicate that an organizational culture that encourages affect‐based trust between colleagues will facilitate knowledge sharing.</jats:italic></jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>The paper bridges the gap between the literature on knowledge sharing, perceived cost of knowledge sharing, affective organizational commitment and trust in a single model.</jats:italic></jats:p></jats:sec>