Examining the Role of Trust in Virtual Environment for Knowledge Exchange: A Study on Pakistani Universities

Abstract

The rationale behind conducting this study is to investigate the influence of Performance Expectancy on user ICT use Behavior for Knowledge Exchange. And inorder to examine this relationship trust and intention were proposed and tested as mediating variables. In addition, previous researchers merely focused on knowledge sharing behavior, ignoring the fact that to make an “exchange relationship successful” it is important to examine whether ICT supports users in getting knowledge or not. Hence to obtain these objectives, two longitudinal field studies were conducted at two different time-periods. Study-1 reported 150 usable questionnaires to address ICT use Behavior for knowledge sharing behavior whereas Study-2 reported 350 usable questionnaires to address ICT use Behavior for knowledge seeking. The analysis of the data revealed full serial mediation in both the studies. Moreover, all the individual links also depicted positive and significant relationships.

Keywords: Performance Expectancy, Trust, Intention, Knowledge Exchange, ICT, Behavior