Antecedents of knowledge sharing in communities of practice

Purpose – Communities of practice (CoPs) have gained a great deal of attention from practitioners and scholars alike. However, critical antecedents of knowledge sharing in CoPs have not been fully researched yet. Particularly, empirical results are still scarce. The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of community members' motivation to participate in CoPs, the importance of the community leader and the influence of management support.Design/methodology/approach – In order to test the proposed hypotheses data from 222 CoP members from different communities of a multinational company gathered in a large sample quantitative survey, using partial least square structural equations modelling.Findings – The research results show that a leading facilitator and an appropriate managerial support influence interaction processes in CoPs positively.Research limitations/implications – The impact of motivational and managerial factors on knowledge sharing processes in CoPs is conceptualized and tested. With regard...

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