Knowledge-sharing determinants, behaviors, and innovative work behaviors. An integrated theoretical view and empirical examination
| Pages | 562-591 |
| Published date | 21 September 2015 |
| Date | 21 September 2015 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-02-2015-0018 |
| Author | Peyman Akhavan,S. Mahdi Hosseini,Morteza Abbasi,Manuchehr Manteghi |
Knowledge-sharing determinants,
behaviors, and innovative
work behaviors
An integrated theoretical view and
empirical examination
Peyman Akhavan, S. Mahdi Hosseini,
Morteza Abbasi and Manuchehr Manteghi
Department of Management and Industrial Engineering,
Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of socio-psychological factors from
different theoretical perspectives, as well as the roles of technological and cultural facilitators on
knowledgesharing (KS)behaviors and whetherit leads to superioremployees’innovativework behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach –Partial leastsquares analysis was used to investigatethe research
model based on a survey of 257 employees from 22 high-tech companies (including companies in
pharmaceutical, nano technological, biotechnological, aviation, and aerospace industries) in Iran.
Findings –The results supported the effects of three motivational factors, i.e. perceived loss of
knowledge power, perceived reputation enhancement, and perceived enjoyment in helping others, and
two social capital factors, i.e. social interaction ties and trust, on employees’attitude toward KS.
Findings also indicated that employees’KS behaviors enhance their innovative work behaviors.
Research limitations/implications –Since the survey used cross-sectional data and samples here
were limited to some Iranian companies, the results of this study may prove not to be generalizable and
should be confirmed using larger samples and/or longitudinal studies.
Practical implications –The findings provide useful insights into how managers should encourage
employees’KS attitudes, intentions, and behaviors to foster innovative work behaviors of employees.
Originality/value –This study is one of the first attempts to fill the void in integrative research for
examining relationships among KS determinants, behaviors, and outcomes.
Keywords Iran, Theory of planned behaviour, Knowledge sharing, Social exchange theory,
Innovative work behaviours, Social capital theory
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Knowledge, in the era labeled as knowledge economy, is recognized as a critical asset
for organizations to gain competitive advantage and to maintain long-term success.
This recognition has encouraged many organizations to adopt knowledge management
(KM) initiatives (King and Marks, 2008; He and Wei, 2009). KM is the process of
identifying, sharing, and utilizing knowledge and good practice to enable organizations
to compete (O’Dell and Grayson, 1998). Researchers tend to describe the knowledge
sharing (KS) by the employees as the heart of KM (Riege, 2005). Basically, knowledge
is created and applied by individuals (Nonaka, 1994). KS is the pivotal process to
transform individual knowledge into organizational knowledge (Nonaka, 1994; Foss
et al., 2010). If individuals are found to be reluctant to share what they know, then
implementation of KM would be beyond question. KS is crucial to individual level
outcomes in organizations. Fostering employees’innovative work behaviors
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 67 No. 5, 2015
pp. 562-591
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-02-2015-0018
Received 9 February 2015
Revised 12 May 2015
Accepted 3 July 2015
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-3806.htm
562
AJIM
67,5
constitutes one of the most important benefits of the KS through providing
opportunities for mutual learning and facilitating the knowledge creation and reuse at
both individual and organizational levels (Yu et al., 2013; Radaelli et al., 2014).
Consequently, the organizations that wish to elevate their employees’innovative work
behaviors are likely to motivate their employees to enhance their willingness to share
their knowledge (Marshall and Sapsed, 2000; Carmeli et al., 2013).
There is an extensive literature on the factors that influence KS behaviors as well as
impacts of KS behaviors on the outcomes of firms at different levels. Nevertheless,
these studies solely focussed on the relationship between KS determinants and
behaviors (e.g. Bock et al., 2005; Chen and Hung, 2010; Amayah, 2013; Sanjaghi
et al., 2013), or on the relationship between KS and firm outcomes (e.g. Calantone et al. ,
2002; Liao et al., 2007; Akhavan et al., 2012). For instance, Amayah (2013) merely
investigated KS enablers, motivators, and barriers in a public academic institution,
while Liao et al. (2007) just examined the effects of KS behaviors on the organization
absorptive capacity and innovation capability. Although some KM scholars have
recently endeavored to develop an integrative model to study KS (e.g. Kim and Lee,
2012; Hu and Randel, 2014), these works also have focussed only on some aspects of KS
determinants and outcomes. For example, three social capital dimensions and extrinsic
incentives as KS determinants, on one side, and team innovation as KS outcome, on the
other, was incorporated in Hu and Randel’s (2014) research model. Nonetheless, they
have not considered some other KS determinants like organizational contextual factors.
Therefore, there is still limited empirical research for developing an integrative model
that explores the determinants of KS from a holistic perspective through considering
motivational, sociological, and facilitating conditions. In addition, most of prior
research examined the effect of KS on performance of companies at organizational
level, rather than individual level (e.g. Lin, 2007; Kim et al., 2013). Furthermore, most of
KM studies have been conducted in Western and East Asian countries. Little empirical
research has been conducted about KS in Iranian context. Iran has a relatively low
Hofstede ranking in individualit y and the society is collectivist ra ther than
individualist (Hofstede, 1997). Therefore, in such a context, it would be interesting to
identify the factors that facilitate KS behaviors and effects of these behaviors on
individual outcomes (innovative work behaviors) in an integrative view. Aim ed at
bridging above-mentioned gap, this study attempts to develop a research model that
relates KS determinants, behaviors, and employees’innovative work behaviors at
individual level within Iranian high-tech companies. Findings of this study may offer
significant contributions to KM officers and practitioners to develop appropriate KS
initiatives and enhance employees’innovative work behaviors. They would also be
able to evaluate the effectiveness of investments on different KS strategies.
For its ability to forecast any kind of behavior, the theory of planned behavior (TPB)
is adopted in this paper. Indeed, many other researchers have taken up TPB to
investigate KS behaviors (e.g. Bock and Kim, 2002; Chen et al., 2009; Chennamaneni
et al., 2012; Wu and Zhu, 2012; Akhavan et al., 2013). In consideration of personal
factors for KS determinants, it has been proposed that both costs and benefits aspects
are of importance in KS, though the latter has been given more attention than the
former (Kankanhalli et al., 2005). In addition, the rational are more likely to consider
the outcomes of an action (such as KS) before making a decision. Thus, we also apply
social exchange theory (SET) for measurement of the effects of cost and benefit on
attitudes toward KS. Besides, social capital, as argued by scholars, offers significant
social contexts for social exchange (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998) in general, and for KS
563
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sharing
determinants
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