Professional Ethics and Knowledge Sharing within Supply Chain: ‎the Role of Trust

The paper aims to provide an integrative review of empirical literature on factors affecting knowledge sharing in supply chain, analyzing the various results of the published articles about the topic to find out critical factors.

A quality-quantitative mixed method has been adopted in our exploratory study. Delphi method, a qualitative approach, has been initially applied to design a conceptual model for knowledge sharing within supply chain. After this, through a review of literature, 21 articles have been analyzed based on the resulted model to present the critical factors. Finally, the resulting model has been examined and evaluated in the case study, by a quantitative approach. The main instrument of the study is a researcher-made questionnaire. The statistical population comprises all the managers of Khorasan Electricity Supply Chain in Iran (461 people). 215 of them have been selected as samples, using Stratified Random Sampling. Data analyzed by using SPSS 21 software, Z-test, Friedman test, and Studentchr('39')s t-test.

According to the results, a model for knowledge sharing in supply chain has been developed based on 5 dimensions and 38 factors. In addition, Communication, trust, and absorptive capacity of knowledge receiver are primary factors in a majority of articles. Also, inter-organizational trust is at average level in Khorasan Electricity Supply Chain, Iran.

This paper will contribute to improve understanding on the role of trust as one of the most important components of professional ethics in promoting the culture of knowledge sharing among members