Dynamics of Trust within Communities of Practice: Goodwill, Reputation and Social Norms


Paul Muller, BETA, University of Strassbourg

The advent of a Knowledge-based Economy induces some
profound metamorphoses in terms of coordination of productive knowledge. In
this new configuration, Communities of Practice (CoPs) emerge as a main mode
of knowledge coordination. We explore in this article this situated perspective and
we focus on a central intrinsic dimension of CoPs: Trust. We study dynamics of
trust by confronting three vectors: goodwill, reputation and social norms. By
doing so, we propose a simulation model aiming at pointing out the dynamics of
trust in relationship with goodwill, reputation and social norms.

Date: 14 September-00 0000


UNU-MERIT