Mediating Effects of Collaboration Among Business Supply Chain Firms on Inter - Organizational Trust And Knowledge Sharing Intention

Abstract

Knowledge sharing studies in the fourth industry revolution is still new. Therefore, an empirical study had been conducted in this research, and the result might be useful for the multinational supply chain firms in the economy of digital era. This research aims to examine how collaboration among business supply chain firms mediates the relationship between inter-organizational trust and knowledge sharing intention; explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. The data was collected through simple random sampling technique of 50 multinational organizations, both in Thailand and some in USA. By using partial least square regression analysis, the result showed that there was positive relationship between inter-organizational trust and knowledge sharing intention as well as inter-organizational trust and collaboration. In addition, the indirect relationship between inter-organizational trust and explicit knowledge sharing intention was also found through the mediating effect of collaboration. The analysis also found that collaboration was the real mediator between inter-organizational trust and explicit knowledge sharing intention. Overall, the evidences suggested that both explicit knowledge sharing and tacit knowledge sharing intention could be acquired by increasing both inter-organizational trust between business firms and collaboration.