Benevolent Competence and Integrity-Based Trust in Knowledge Transfer: A Look at Software Reuse
John R. Drake, Nikhil Mehta · Journal of the Association for Information Systems · 2006
The potential of software reuse to reduce costs and time while increasing quality in a new project development, make it an important issue in the management of information systems. The question of how to increase software reuse in new application development has often been asked, but mostly from a managerial perspective rather than the individual perspective. This research effort attempts to address this limitation by conceptualizing software as a form of knowledge, and intending to examine if trustworthiness of various knowledge transfer mechanisms influences receipt of software through those mechanisms. And if so, which knowledge transfer mechanisms do software developers trust most? We propose and intend to test a model of software reuse in which the links between knowledge transfer mechanisms and receipt of software through those mechanisms is mediated by competence-, integrity-, and benevolence-based trust. Hypotheses are developed to test those links, and appropriate methodology is outlined to conduct the research. With a better understanding of why