PurposeThe effective transfer of knowledge within an organization is critical for its sustainable competitive advantage. Based on the norm of reciprocity, it can be concluded that individuals’ primary motivation to transfer their treasured knowledge can be summarized as “trust,” that is, the individuals trust their selfless transfer behavior can be reciprocated by the recipients in the future.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, a simulation model based on knowledge transfer behavior and reciprocal trust between individuals is built through agent-based modeling and simulation to investigate the factors that influence the efficiency of knowledge transfer within an organization.FindingsExperiments are performed to test the impact of reciprocal trust and organizational structure on the efficiency of knowledge transfer.Originality/valueThe results indicate a significant role of key elements of reciprocal trust and organizational structure, which provides relevant practical guidance for both individuals and organization managers in the context of knowledge transfer.