Understanding IT professionals’ knowledge sharing intention through KMS: a social exchange perspective

Knowledge sharing is the behavior of disseminating acquired knowledge to other members of an organization, and often presents major challenges, because some employees resist sharing their knowledge with others. In this paper, we investigate the knowledge sharing behavioral intention based on social exchange theory (SET). SET emphasizes non-material exchange, and people share their knowledge by weighing the potential benefits and risks of social relationships. The research presented in this study includes various constructs based on SET and social cognitive theory. This study examines the role of social exchange factors (perceived organizational support, organizational trust and reciprocal relationship expectancy) in explaining IT professionals’ knowledge sharing intentions through KMS. Based on a survey of 251 IT professionals in STSP, this study applies structural equation modeling to verify the research model. The results showed that trust, self-efficacy and reciprocal relationship expectancy are significantly associated with knowledge sharing through KMS. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013