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1 – 10 of over 1000Vibha Mahajan, Jyoti Sharma and Pavleen Soni
Sharing of knowledge has always been accredited as the indispensable segment of knowledge management. As knowledge management practices are growing within the organizations, it is…
Abstract
Purpose
Sharing of knowledge has always been accredited as the indispensable segment of knowledge management. As knowledge management practices are growing within the organizations, it is important that correspondingly, valid and reliable knowledge sharing behavior scales are developed to avoid validation issues. Therefore, this composition describes the development and validation of multi-dimensional tacit knowledge sharing behavior scale.
Design/methodology/approach
Herein, two analytical techniques, namely, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis have been used to derive the composition of the constructs.
Findings
The study proposes four-dimensional tacit knowledge sharing behavior scale for services which include voluntarily tacit knowledge donation, involuntary tacit knowledge collection, involuntarily tacit knowledge collection and voluntary tacit knowledge collection.
Research limitations/implications
A more holistic approach to the tacit knowledge sharing behavior construct has been proposed, which is helpful in contributing to the literature of tacit knowledge sharing behavior of employees. Additionally, it has made an attempt to eliminate the gap as voiced by most of the literature related to tacit knowledge sharing in service industries which has focused upon western service sectors and limited research is available in the Asian context.
Practical implications
The ingenuity of the scale lies in the fact that it measures voluntary and involuntary aspects of tacit knowledge sharing behavior of employees which can be used by the organization to develop knowledge management plans and knowledge sharing practices based on the identified strategies.
Originality/value
The study is one of its kind that has considered various aspects namely, knowledge donation, knowledge collection, voluntary knowledge sharing and involuntary knowledge sharing together.
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Gabriela Alvarez, Colin Pilbeam and Richard Wilding
Within the context of a sustainable supply chain, the purpose of this paper is to report on empirical longitudinal research on supply chain network evolution and dynamics of…
Abstract
Purpose
Within the context of a sustainable supply chain, the purpose of this paper is to report on empirical longitudinal research on supply chain network evolution and dynamics of governance in a multi‐stakeholder supply chain sustainability initiative led by Nespresso, the speciality coffee division of Nestlé.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proposes a framework to study the creation and evolution of governance mechanisms over a five‐year period. Data from 48 semi‐structured interviews and 15 recent and historic documents were also analysed. The interviews were conducted among current and past representatives of all the organisations concerned including coffee traders, NGOs and farmers.
Findings
In contrast with literature on the subject, governance mechanisms initially relied mostly on informal mechanisms. Formal governance mechanisms were incorporated into the relationships to enable the supply chain network to grow and to provide clarity to all actors. Relational quality processes that increased trust were critical elements in the early phase, and were explicitly built into a second phase of development.
Research limitations/implications
Being a single case study, some caution needs to be applied to generalise findings beyond the specific context studied. An additional methodological limitation is the limited number of actors involved in the overall supply chain network.
Practical implications
The paper shows the importance of treating governance mechanisms within the supply chain not as a fixed variable to be determined once and for all in the beginning of a relationship, but rather to adapt the coordination mechanisms of the relationships.
Originality/value
The evolution of relationships over time has been “often called for but rarely chosen”. The case highlights the potential benefits of this type of research to develop an understanding of the evolution of relationships in a supply chain network.
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Alexander Serenko and Nick Bontis
This paper aims to explore antecedents and consequences of intra-organizational knowledge hiding.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore antecedents and consequences of intra-organizational knowledge hiding.
Design/methodology/approach
A model was developed and tested with data collected from 691 knowledge workers from 15 North American credit unions.
Findings
Knowledge hiding and knowledge sharing belong to unique yet possibly overlapping constructs. Individual employees believe that they engage in knowledge hiding to a lesser degree than their co-workers. The availability of knowledge management systems and knowledge policies has no impact on intra-organizational knowledge hiding. The existence of a positive organizational knowledge culture has a negative effect on intra-organizational knowledge hiding. In contrast, job insecurity motivates knowledge hiding. Employees may reciprocate negative knowledge behavior, and knowledge hiding promotes voluntary turnover.
Practical implications
Managers should realize the uniqueness of counterproductive knowledge behavior and develop proactive measures to reduce or eliminate it.
Originality/value
Counterproductive knowledge behavior is dramatically under-represented in knowledge management research, and this study attempts to fill that void.
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Adrian Klammer and Stefan Gueldenberg
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the antecedents, levers of control and outcomes of organizational unlearning and forgetting in new product development…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the antecedents, levers of control and outcomes of organizational unlearning and forgetting in new product development (NPD) teams.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper employs a holistic multiple-case study design. This paper gathered data from 30 individual semi-structured interviews in 10 different NPD teams as well as additional data to triangulate the findings.
Findings
The authors propose a model of unlearning and forgetting elements occurring in NPD teams. The two most prominent factors that hamper innovation are the inability to unlearn and involuntary forgetting. Failure to manage these antecedents results in the loss of crucial resources, missing innovations or intra-team tensions. Managing knowledge loss by promoting unlearning and reducing forgetting leads to enhanced creativity and flexibility, a higher chance of exceeding innovation goals, increased conversion efficiency and augmentation of existing knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
This paper contributes empirical evidence to the field of unlearning and forgetting. The model illustrates the NPD process from the perspective of organizational unlearning and forgetting. The authors examined the NPD process from an unlearning and forgetting perspective and proposed new categories of antecedents, consequences and managing unlearning and forgetting. This generates a more profound theoretical understanding of underlying knowledge loss processes in NPD teams.
Practical implications
Companies should promote unlearning and specify spatial and temporal freedom. In doing so, team members can identify outdated and obsolete knowledge. Being attentive to unlearning and forgetting processes allows teams to achieve increased creativity and flexibility.
Originality/value
This paper provides empirical evidence to generate a more profound understanding of the underlying mechanisms of knowledge loss in NPD teams. First, the authors propose a holistic model of antecedents, levers of control and consequences of both unlearning and forgetting. Second, the authors suggest that organizations can use these levers of control to successfully manage unlearning and forgetting in NPD teams.
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Juan Carlos Bou‐Llusar and Mercedes Segarra‐Ciprés
The purpose of this article is to analyze the implications for competitive advantage deriving from strategic knowledge and knowledge transfer process.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to analyze the implications for competitive advantage deriving from strategic knowledge and knowledge transfer process.
Design/methodology/approach
One major issue in a knowledge‐based (KBV) view consists of delimiting the source of competitive advantage, that is, knowledge versus knowledge management processes (acquisition, transfer, generation). Based on the KBV and knowledge management literature, the current paper considers the importance of both elements. Specifically, the paper focuses on strategic knowledge and knowledge transfer process.
Findings
The contributions of this paper are the proposal of strategic knowledge characteristics and the suggestion of a theoretical framework to study the internal transfer of strategic knowledge. The main conclusion is that the characteristics of knowledge that generate competitive advantage also create barriers for internal transfer. The research question addressed here is what firms must do to transfer strategic knowledge within the firm while limiting involuntary transfer.
Originality/value
In order to answer this question, this paper suggests a theoretical framework that focuses not only on the implications of knowledge of a strategic asset, but rather takes a much broader perspective, considering the transfer process as a whole and highlighting the role of the different elements of this process (source, receiver and context) in order to facilitate the efficient transfer of strategic knowledge.
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Peixu He, Amitabh Anand, Mengying Wu, Cuiling Jiang and Qing Xia
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how voluntary citizenship behaviour towards an individual (VCB-I) is linked with vicious knowledge hiding (VKH), and why members…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how voluntary citizenship behaviour towards an individual (VCB-I) is linked with vicious knowledge hiding (VKH), and why members, within a mastery climate, tend to participate in less VKH after their engaging in VCB-I. The authors, according to the moral licensing theory, propose that moral licensing mediates the relationship between VCB-I and VKH, and that a mastery climate weakens the hypothesised link via moral licensing.
Design/methodology/approach
This study surveys 455 valid matching samples of subordinates and supervisors from 77 working teams in China at two time points and explores the relationship between VCB and VKH, as well as the underlying mechanism. A confirmatory factor analysis, bootstrapping method and hierarchical linear model were used to validate the research hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that VCB-I has a significant positive effect on VKH; moral credentials play a mediating role in the relationship between VCB-I and VKH; and the mastery climate moderates the positive effect of moral credentials on VKH and the mediating effect of moral credentials. In a high-mastery climate, the direct effect of moral credentials on VKH and the indirect influence of VCB-I on VKH through moral credentials are both weakened, and conversely, both effects are enhanced in a low-mastery climate. However, contrary to the expected hypothesis, moral credits do not mediate the relationship between VCB-I and VKH, which may be due to the differences in the mechanisms between the two moral licensing models.
Originality/value
Prior research has mainly focused on the “victim-centric” perspective to examine the impacts of others’ behaviour on employees’ knowledge hiding. Few works have used the “actor-centric” perspective to analyse the relationship between employees’ prior workplace behaviour and their subsequent knowledge hiding intention. In addition, this study enriches the field research on the voluntary aspects of organisational citizenship behaviour, which differs from its involuntary ones.
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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some…
Abstract
Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.
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The purpose of this paper was to study how psychiatric doctors practise leadership in multidisciplinary healthcare teams. The paper seeks to answer the question: How do…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to study how psychiatric doctors practise leadership in multidisciplinary healthcare teams. The paper seeks to answer the question: How do psychiatric doctors lead multidisciplinary teams during treatment conferences?
Design/methodology/approach
Six psychiatric teams were studied at a university hospital. Each team was observed over a period of 18 months, and data were collected during four years (2008-2011). Data were collected through interviews with doctors (n = 19) and observations (n = 30) of doctors’ work in multidisciplinary psychiatric teams.
Findings
Doctors in a multidisciplinary team use either self-imposed or involuntary leadership style. Oscillating between these two extremes was a strategy for handling the internal tensions of the team.
Research limitations/implications
The study was a case study, performed during treatment conferences at psychiatric wards in a university hospital. This limitation means that there is cause for some caution in generalising the results.
Practical implications
The results are useful for understanding leadership in multidisciplinary medical teams. By understanding the reversible logic of leadership, cooperation and knowledge sharing can be gained, which means that a situation of mere peaceful coexistence can be avoided. Understanding the importance of the informal contract makes it possible to switch leadership among team members. A reversible leadership with an informal contract makes the team less vulnerable. The team’s professionals can thus easily handle difficult situations and internal tensions, facilitating leadership and management of multidisciplinary teams.
Originality/value
Doctors in multidisciplinary psychiatric teams use reversible leadership logic.
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Arif Abdelwhab Ali, Dhanapal Durai Dominic Panneer selvam, Lori Paris and Angappa Gunasekaran
This study aims to investigate the key elements that influence knowledge sharing practice, primarily the relationship between knowledge sharing practice and organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the key elements that influence knowledge sharing practice, primarily the relationship between knowledge sharing practice and organizational performance within the oil and gas (OG) industry.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 203 responses was collected from the OG industry using an online questionnaire. Data were analyzed using applied structural equation modeling to validate the model and test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicate that significant relationships exist among the model constructs. These findings provide a better understanding of the factors that influence knowledge sharing practices within the OG industry. These findings prove that knowledge sharing practices positively impact organizational performance through cost reduction, organization growth and intangible benefits.
Practical implications
This study demonstrates that organizations in the OG industry may increase performance by adopting knowledge sharing practices. This study also provides practitioners with important information to enhance knowledge sharing practice within their organizations. For instance, managers should focus on Web 2.0 and other knowledge sharing systems to facilitate both tacit and explicit knowledge sharing. The findings provide empirical evidence that knowledge sharing practices allow organizations to transfer expert knowledge to younger generations of employees. As a result, organizations will be able to capture knowledge and alleviate the negative impact of high staff turnover within the OG industry.
Originality/value
The lack of knowledge sharing practices and the eminent loss of technical knowledge within the (OG) industry, because of retirements and turnover, create a difficult challenge for practitioners. Research on knowledge sharing within the OG industry is limited. Therefore, this study provides an in-depth analysis regarding the critical knowledge sharing practices and valuable information to researcher and practitioners’ knowledge sharing practices within the OG industry.
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Sanjay Kumar Singh, Shashank Mittal, Atri Sengupta and Rabindra Kumar Pradhan
This study aims to examine a dual-pathway model that recognizes two distinct (formal and informal) but complementary mechanisms of knowledge exchanges – knowledge sharing and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine a dual-pathway model that recognizes two distinct (formal and informal) but complementary mechanisms of knowledge exchanges – knowledge sharing and knowledge helping. It also investigates how team members use their limited human and psychosocial capital for prosocial knowledge effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey-based approach was used to examine the hypotheses of the study. A moderated-mediation model was proposed and tested using bootstrap approach.
Findings
Knowledge sharing and knowledge helping were found to be the significant links through which human capital (capability) and psychosocial capital (motivation and efficacy) significantly predict prosocial knowledge effectiveness. Post hoc analysis suggests that human capital through knowledge sharing influences team learning, whereas the psychosocial capital through knowledge helping influences team leadership.
Originality/value
The present study found two distinct but complementary and yet necessary mechanisms of knowledge exchanges to be linked as the important outlay for the human and psychosocial capital to be effective in the prosocial knowledge behaviours.
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