To Share or Not to Share: Modeling Tacit Knowledge Sharing,Its Mediators and Antecedents

Tacit knowledge sharing discussed in this study is important in the area of business ethics, because an unwillingness to share knowledge that may hurt an organization’s survival is seen as being seriously unethical. In the proposed model of this study, distributive justice, procedural justice, and cooperativeness influence tacit knowledge sharing indirectly via two mediators: organizational commitment and trust in co-workers. Accordingly, instrumental ties and expressive ties influence tacit knowledge sharing indirectly only via the mediation of trust in co-workers. The model is assessed by using data from different companies’ employees, who attend an evening college in Taiwan for advance study. The test results of this study indicate that tacit knowledge sharing is affected by distributive justice, procedural justice, and cooperativeness indirectly via organizational commitment. Additionally, tacit knowledge sharing is also affected by distributive justice, instrumental ties, and expressive ties via trust in co-workers. The paths from procedural justice and cooperativeness to trust in co-workers are shown to be insignificant. Managerial implications of the empirical findings are also provided. Chieh-Peng Lin is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Business and Management, Vanung University, Taiwan. He had performed international business practices for several years and now focuses on the research related to consumer and organizational behaviors. His work has been published in a variety of journals including Journal of Business Ethics, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, and so on.     

How valuable is information and communication technology? A study of emerging economy enterprises

Anchored at the knowledge management perspective, we address how information and communication technology (ICT) improves the productivity of emerging economy enterprises. We present the logic that ICT enhances firm performance because it is an important channel or facilitator of effective knowledge sharing and knowledge integration. We further argue that the conditions characterizing an emerging economy (i.e., a country’s economic development) and emerging economy businesses (i.e., internationalization and quality assurance) would affect the extent to which ICT contributes to knowledge management, and thus to firm performance. Our hierarchical linear modeling analysis of 6236 firms from 27 emerging economies lends support to our arguments and predictions, suggesting that ICT is a critical investment that generates satisfactory returns for emerging economy enterprises, yet this investment–return relationship is further contingent upon the macro- and micro-level conditions facing these enterprises. ICT actually adds more value to productivity when a focal emerging economy is less economically developed, and when a focal firm reaches foreign markets or its quality control and assurance is superior.     

Relevant knowledge and recipient ownership: Chinese MNCS’ knowledge transfer in Africa

This paper examines emerging market multinational corporations’ (EMNCs’) knowledge transfer (KT) in emerging markets using case studies of Chinese MNCs (CMNCs) in Africa. CMNCs are found to transfer “relevant knowledge”, existing knowledge reconfigured so that recipients can apply it more effectively with less effort in the new context. Relevance is ensured through recipients exerting ownership of the KT process, influencing what knowledge is transferred and how it is transferred. We summarise EMNCs’ KT process in a “relevant knowledge recipient ownership model”. The model contributes to KT theory by refining and empirically testing a new type of knowledge – relevant knowledge – and a new transfer model – recipient ownership – associated with EMNCs. It leads to a “relevance-based view” in which EMNCs’ competitive advantage in emerging markets is significantly enhanced by knowledge relevance rather than superiority. This contributes to a better understanding of EMNCs’ competitiveness in emerging markets as created from distinct characteristics of their relevant knowledge (applicability, assimilability, affordability) and recipient-driven transfer (selection, scrutiny and synthesis).     

高管团队知识隐藏结构模型与量表开发

针对已有研究中缺乏高管团队知识隐藏量表的不足,在扎根理论研究基础上,通过小规模问卷调查、半结构化访谈和参与式观察,收集可三角验证的数据资料,经过开放式编码、主轴式编码、选择式编码和理论饱和度检验,将高管团队知识隐藏划分为高管知识隐藏行为预估、高管知识隐藏策略选择和高管知识隐藏行为演化3个维度,构建并验证高管团队知识隐藏测量量表,不仅可为研究高管团队知识隐藏行为奠定理论基础,提供工具支持,而且可为团队运行中合理规避高管知识隐藏行为提供理论指导。     

技术会聚对创新绩效的作用机制研究

随着社会经济快速发展,技术会聚备受关注。基于美国专利商标局授权的2 025项中国专利数据,利用负二项回归模型,探讨组织机构技术会聚程度对创新绩效的作用机制,并引入技术知识成熟度和技术知识流动性作为调节变量。研究结果表明：组织机构技术会聚程度与其创新绩效呈倒U型关系;组织机构技术知识成熟度削弱了技术会聚程度与创新绩效之间的关系;组织机构技术知识流动性削弱了技术会聚程度与创新绩效间的关系。研究结论可为组织机构提高创新绩效提供理论依据。     

Knowledge assets and firm international performance

This paper investigates how intangible knowledge assets impact upon firm international performance through the analysis of a sample of 290 European listed companies. We draw upon the knowledge-based view of the firm, and argue that more knowledge assets have a positive impact on foreign sales intensity, but only a up to a point. The inverse quadratic relationship found suggests that it is necessary to balance knowledge assets with complementary assets in order to achieve a higher degree of international performance. Furthermore we also suggest that externally-generated knowledge assets may have a positive impact upon international performance, but that the impact will be mediated by the possession of internally generated knowledge assets.     

Knowledge creation capability in MNC subsidiaries: Examining the roles of global and local knowledge inflows and subsidiary knowledge stocks

Grounded in knowledge-based theories of the multinational corporation (MNC) and building on organizational learning literature, this paper develops and tests a model of MNC subsidiaries’ knowledge creation capability as a joint function of knowledge inflows to subsidiaries and their knowledge stocks (i.e., subsidiaries’ internal human, social, and organizational capital). Survey-based data from 106 subsidiaries located in the U.S. suggests that local (i.e., host country) knowledge inflows to a subsidiary are more effective in enhancing a subsidiary's knowledge creation capability compared to global knowledge inflows from other units of the same MNC. Furthermore, results point to a not-invented-here syndrome in the exploitation of knowledge sourced from the parent company; such that when a subsidiary's internal social capital is high, the relationship between global knowledge inflows and knowledge creation capability is negative and when it is low, the relationship becomes positive.     

基于知识结构的跨国公司子公司成长战略研究

基于知识结构的子公司成长实质上是子公司内外部知识积累互动、优化知识结构的过程。知识基及其构成是子公司成长的内在基本条件;母合知识结构及其外部知识结构的互动是子公司成长的真正机理;子公司知识结构的变化为其成长提供了可能。基于知识结构的子公司成长战略有利于我国企业与跨国公司人力资源和知识网络的有效嫁接,能够促进我国企业的持续快速成长。     

The impact of knowledge management on innovation and entrepreneurship in the biotechnology and telecommunications industries

In the resource-based view approach, the knowledge frontier rests on the understanding of the process of creating and recreating distinctive competences. Moreover, in spite of the importance of knowledge assets, how innovation distinctive competences are generated in organizations is still an unknown factor. This research studies the effect of introducing knowledge management programs in the development of innovation distinctive competences, using two knowledge intensive industries. We establish a conceptual delimitation of knowledge management as a directive system through a set of principles and practices. The theoretical relationships we propose are tested in an empirical study carried out in 222 firms from the Spanish biotechnology and telecommunications industries.      

Analysis of Informal Communication Networks – A Case Study

The structure and dynamics of informal communication networks are of central importance for the functionality of enterprise workflows and for performance and innovation of knowledge-centric organizations. While most executives are aware of this fact, there is a general lack of (semi-) automated, IT-supported methods and instruments to make informal communication networks measurable. Although logging of electronic communications has made considerable progress over the past few years, it is still extremely difficult to map personal interaction; manual approaches in particular are extremely error-prone. The article shows how informal communication networks can be investigated by IT-based methods. At the same time, the authors will be presenting an instrument (“Social Badges”) that collects personal communications automatically and more precisely than legacy approaches allow. The practical applicability of the approach is evaluated through a case study. This article is also available in German in print and via : Fischbach K, Gloor PA, Schoder D (2008) Analyse informeller Kommunikationsnetzwerke am Beispiel einer Fallstudie. WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK. doi: . Accepted after three revisions by Prof. Dr. Buhl.