| Knowledge exchange behavior is often portrayed as a key determinant of the competitive position of a firm operating in a knowledge intensive environment. Of interest to researchers and managers alike are the conditions that promote, attenuate or even retard knowledge sharing between firms. This research employs a supply channel context to study knowledge exchange behavior (KEB). Whether knowledge exchange occurs, and if so, to what extent, may be contingent on various factors.;While inter-organizational trust has widely been posited to be a key antecedent of knowledge exchange behavior, a review of the literature reveals that the evidence is conflicting. Sometimes a high level of inter-organizational trust may not be necessary for a decision to exchange valuable knowledge. Likewise, despite high inter-organizational trust KEB may not be present.;A recent empirical study by Kim, Umanath, Kim, Ahrens & Kim, (2012) found that increasing levels of inter-organizational trust actually resulted in inhibition of knowledge exchange behavior in supply channel dyads even with a high level of knowledge complementarity. This specific finding has served as the springboard for this project; that is, this inquiry is focused on identifying conditions that render inter-organizational trust unimportant. In short, this research seeks to examine the contingent effect of knowledge interdependence (joint dependence + dependence asymmetry) on KEB speculated to be a missing contingency by Kim, et al (2012). |
