Andriessen, J.H.Erik2017-04-152017-04-152005978-1-4020-3591-3Knowledge sharing communities can be found in many organizations, but their forms and functions appear to be quite diverse. This implies that questions concerning the functioning of communities, (how do they work) and questions concerning success conditions (how to organize and facilitate them) cannot be answered in a general way. The purpose of this article is to develop the theory in this area by discovering basic dimensions along which communities differ, and by identifying basic types of knowledge communities, underlying the diversity of knowledge sharing groups. Through an analysis of the literature and of a series of communities in large organizations, two basic dimensions and five archetypes of knowledge communities are identified.enArchetypes of Knowledge CommunitiesText10.1007/1-4020-3591-8_11