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Improving knowledge transfer through enterprise social media: the mediating role of transactive memory

Yuan Sun (School of Business Administration, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China) (Zheshang Research Institute, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China) (Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities - Modern Business Research Center of Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China)
Rong-An Shang (Department of Business Administration, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan)
Haiyang Cao (School of Business Administration, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China)
Hongyu Jiang (School of Business Administration, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China)
Klaus Boehnke (Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany) (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia)
Jindi Fu (School of Management, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, China)

Industrial Management & Data Systems

ISSN: 0263-5577

Article publication date: 17 November 2021

Issue publication date: 3 January 2022

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Abstract

Purpose

Enterprise social media can be the organizational transactive memory in which the knowledge dialogue provides users with the metaknowledge to support knowledge transfer. The purpose of this study is to examine a mediation model to show how perceived critical mass, openness and affiliation climate affect organizational knowledge transfer through the mediation of improving the metaknowledge of who knows what and whom.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the mediation model and corresponding hypotheses, this study employs structural equation modeling analysis using 264 valid questionnaires.

Findings

The study found the two mediators fully explained the effects of the three preconditions on knowledge transfer.

Originality/value

These results help us to better understand the benefits of enterprise social media and the functions of transactive memory in organizations.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Yuan Sun was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant 71772162 and 72172143. Rong-An Shang was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, under grant MOST 106-2410-H-031-018-. Jindi Fu was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant 72102058. Klaus Boehnke’s contribution to this article was in part supported within the framework of the HSE University Basic Research Program.

Citation

Sun, Y., Shang, R.-A., Cao, H., Jiang, H., Boehnke, K. and Fu, J. (2022), "Improving knowledge transfer through enterprise social media: the mediating role of transactive memory", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 122 No. 1, pp. 272-291. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-04-2021-0216

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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