Exchange Ideology as a moderator of Knowledge Sharing in virtual teams: a social exchange theory perspective

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine how individual Exchange Ideology (EI) influences the relationship between perceived economic and social benefits and Knowledge Sharing (KS) behaviour in the context of virtual teams. It draws on social exchange theory to test whether EI would positively moderate the relationship between three perceived benefits (i.e., extrinsic rewards, reciprocity, and reputation) and virtual team members' KS behaviour. Contrary to the theory of team-member social exchange, the findings suggest that in virtual KS contexts, EI negatively moderates the relationships between extrinsic rewards, reciprocity and KS, but has no effect on reputation and KS.