Interpersonal trust factors affecting member’s knowledge sharing behavior in virtual communities

Virtual communities on the Internet, allows users to communicate, exchange information and share knowledge in order to meet their needs. Many of the virtual communities failed due to members’ lack of willingness to share knowledge with each other. The main purpose of this research is to focus on the factors affecting interpersonal trust and investigate the effects of interpersonal trust on intention to knowledge sharing in virtual communities. Increase in interpersonal trust can increase motivation of virtual members in order to increase knowledge sharing. So we need to understand the factors affecting interpersonal trust and knowledge sharing behavior of members. Based on the extensive literature review, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted and the experimental data were collected from 27 communities. So in this study, the effect of 8 factors, on interpersonal trust and impact of interpersonal trust on knowledge sharing intention was evaluated between 336 virtual community members. Data were analyzed using structured equation modeling, in order to test the measurement model using confirmatory factor analysis, and to test the structural model. Results indicated that interpersonal trust has a significant impact on intend to share knowledge among users of virtual communities and factors including ability, Benevolence, Integrity, Predictability, Competence, shared vision, knowledge growth, and Create personal connections, have a positive influence on interpersonal trust. This study may help managers to manage virtual communities and promote the factors affecting interpersonal trust and stimulate the sharing of knowledge.