Search results

1 – 10 of over 15000
Article
Publication date: 23 January 2023

Shekhar and Marco Valeri

This paper aims to map the knowledge management research in small businesses and suggest future actions to strengthen managerial practices. Knowledge management practices foster…

1204

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to map the knowledge management research in small businesses and suggest future actions to strengthen managerial practices. Knowledge management practices foster the growth of small businesses. They allow innovation to grow within the institutions, enhance customer satisfaction and reduce employee absenteeism and attrition.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts a bibliometric protocol to retrieve the 686 articles published in the Web of Science (WoS) database. The WoS database is selected to ensure only quality and peer-reviewed publications are analysed in the study. It then identifies the top contributions, and existing thematic areas, and suggests future research and policy actions for boosting economic growth through small business. The study uses VOSviewer, Science of Science (Sci2) and Gephi to conduct the bibliometric and network analysis.

Findings

The results from keyword co-occurrence and co-citation analysis helps in identifying thematic areas. The findings highlight that there exist five major themes in knowledge management research for small businesses. The dynamic co-citation analysis helps in tracing the evolution of these clusters and suggests future themes, research directions and methodological advances in the theme. PageRank analysis helps in identifying the top articles published on high-impact journals in the theme.

Research limitations/implications

The study helps researchers by summarising existing literature and identifying key thematic areas. It also assists policymakers by recommending actions to improve knowledge management practises in small businesses to gain a competitive advantage. The paper suffers from the limitations of bibliometric analysis. The sample is collected from a single data source and a single type (journal articles) and the statistical accuracy of the analysis depends on the quality of the sample.

Originality/value

The study’s originality lies in using fit-for-purpose software in clustering the research and suggesting actions. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of its kind in applying bibliometrics in studying and covering several aspects of knowledge management in small businesses with a combination of software.

Details

European Business Review, vol. 35 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-534X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 April 2014

Tuan Luu

This research excursion through shipping companies in Vietnam sought to investigate whether organizational culture, ethics, and emotional intelligence influence knowledge sharing

3710

Abstract

Purpose

This research excursion through shipping companies in Vietnam sought to investigate whether organizational culture, ethics, and emotional intelligence influence knowledge sharing, which in turn enhances competitive intelligence scanning. This paper aims to discuss the above issue.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 401 responses returned from self-administered structured questionnaires relayed to 635 middle level managers were processed through structural equation modeling approach to test hypotheses.

Findings

Knowledge sharing was proved to positively relate to clan, market, or adhocracy culture, ethics of care, and high level of emotional intelligence. Knowledge sharing also shows a positive effect on competitive intelligence scanning.

Originality/value

For competitive intelligence scanning to be effective, knowledge should be shared among organizational members, which necessitates the three building blocks: supportive knowledge sharing culture (clan, market, or adhocracy culture), ethics or care, and heightened emotional intelligence.

Details

Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 32 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-4503

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2020

I Wayan Edi Arsawan, Viktor Koval, Ismi Rajiani, Ni Wayan Rustiarini, Wayan Gede Supartha and Ni Putu Santi Suryantini

This study aimed to examine and explain the role of knowledge sharing in shaping innovation culture to improve business performance and build sustainable competitive advantage…

5116

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to examine and explain the role of knowledge sharing in shaping innovation culture to improve business performance and build sustainable competitive advantage. Most empirical research tended to be conducted in large companies, and there are limited studies on this topic in the SME sector. Thus, the study needs to re-examine whether the theories developed to understand large companies apply to SMEs.

Design/methodology/approach

This quantitative study involved 259 respondents from a 59 sampling frame consisting of three levels of management of export SMEs in the Bali province of Indonesia. The questionnaire used to gather the data used a semantic differential scale, and the data were analyzed using SmartPLS software.

Findings

The results showed that knowledge sharing significantly influenced innovation culture, business performance and sustainable competitive advantage. Theoretically, this research provides insight into the body of knowledge in innovation culture and business performance as a mediator variable.

Research limitations/implications

Cross-sectional design limits the authors from drawing definitive generalizations, and self-reported measures used in the study increase the chances of bias.

Practical implications

The study's findings could motivate managers and practitioners to place emphasis on knowledge sharing and innovation culture in the SME sector.

Originality/value

The role of knowledge sharing has been focused on large companies in several countries. However, research examining the role of knowledge sharing in building an innovation culture is still rare in the SME sector, particularly in Indonesian SMEs. Therefore, research on this topic is needed because Indonesia has not only a different culture but also different business practices.

Details

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 71 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 January 2023

Mohammed Saleh Alosani and Hassan Saleh Al-Dhaafri

The COVID-19 pandemic showed that public bodies need to develop their services in an innovative way. However, as a result of numerous difficulties and barriers, employees in such…

Abstract

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic showed that public bodies need to develop their services in an innovative way. However, as a result of numerous difficulties and barriers, employees in such agencies are hesitant to innovate. Knowledge sharing and an innovative culture are factors that can help raise innovation. However, empirical evidence is inadequate to demonstrate this claim, especially in the government sector. Thus, the aim of this study is to conduct an empirical analysis to study the impact of knowledge sharing and innovative culture on the service innovation of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE's) government agencies.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were obtained from government institutions in the UAE. The analyses were based on 193 responses retrieved from a survey questionnaire sent to 221 government agencies. The authors used structural equation modelling (SEM) and statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) to test the proposed hypotheses and do a preliminary study analysis.

Findings

The findings indicate that knowledge sharing has a significant and positive effect on service innovation. The innovative culture also moderates the relationship between knowledge sharing and service innovation.

Research limitations/implications

These results provide information that is useful to decision-makers and managers in government agencies by emphasising the importance of effective knowledge sharing and innovative culture in improving service innovation in these entities. These relationships amongst knowledge sharing, innovative culture and service innovation may provide a clue regarding how government agencies can promote knowledge sharing and innovative culture to sustain their innovation performance.

Originality/value

Private-sector organisations are concerned about factors that enhance innovative activities as one of the factors of development, improvement and enhancement of competitive advantage. However, in government, especially in the UAE, research into the role played by innovation remains uncommon, particularly in the role of knowledge sharing and innovative culture in building service innovation. Because of this, it was important to do research on this topic to close the gap and provide evidence to back it up.

Details

Management & Sustainability: An Arab Review, vol. 2 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2752-9819

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 February 2012

Ibrahim Seba, Jennifer Rowley and Rachel Delbridge

This study aims to contribute to understanding of knowledge management and sharing in the public sector in the Middle East through a case study based investigation of knowledge

3289

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to contribute to understanding of knowledge management and sharing in the public sector in the Middle East through a case study based investigation of knowledge management initiatives and associated challenges and barriers.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 15 police officers of different rank and position. Questions focussed on knowledge management strategies and approaches to encouraging employees to exchange and share knowledge, and difficulties associated with encouraging officers to share knowledge. Interviews were either recorded and transcripts created, or notes were taken. A three‐stage thematic analysis of the interview transcripts was undertaken.

Findings

The Dubai Police Force has made a strategic commitment to the development of knowledge management to enhance performance. It established a Skills Investment Programme in 2003, a Knowledge Management Department in 2005, and more recently, in 2009, a Curriculum Department. However, the evidence from interviews suggests that the force has yet to succeed in embedding a knowledge culture. Four key factors were identified repeatedly as potential barriers to knowledge sharing: organizational structure, leadership, time allocation, and trust.

Originality/value

This article demonstrates the importance of leadership, time allocation, and trust in promoting a knowledge culture and encouraging knowledge sharing. In Arab cultures, leadership and trust, and associated rewards such as respect have a particular role to play.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 August 2021

Muhammad Umar, Maqbool Hussain Sial, Syed Ahmad Ali, Muhammad Waseem Bari and Muhammad Ahmad

This paper aims to investigate the tacit knowledge-sharing framework among Pakistani academicians. The objective is to study trust and social networks as antecedents to foster…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the tacit knowledge-sharing framework among Pakistani academicians. The objective is to study trust and social networks as antecedents to foster tacit knowledge sharing with the mediating role of commitment. Furthermore, the moderating role of organizational knowledge-sharing culture is also examined.

Design/methodology/approach

The study applied a survey-based quantitative research design to test the proposed model. The nature of data are cross-sectional and collected with stratified random sampling among public sector higher education professionals of Pakistan. The total sample size for the present research is 247 respondents. The variance-based structural equation modeling technique by using Smart_PLS software is used for analysis.

Findings

Data analysis and results reveal that trust and social networks are significant predictors of tacit knowledge sharing among Pakistani academicians while commitment positively mediated the relationships. While the moderating role of organizational knowledge-sharing culture is also established.

Research limitations/implications

The current research explains tacit knowledge sharing among academics with fewer antecedents i.e. social network and trust with limited sample size and specific population. There is still a great deal of work to be done in this area. Hence, the study provides direction for including knowledge-oriented leadership and knowledge governance in the current framework. Moreover, the framework can be tested in different work settings for better generalization.

Practical implications

The study gives an important lead to practitioners for enhancing tacit knowledge sharing at the workplace through a robust social network of employees, building trust and boosting employees’ commitment, as well as through supportive organizational knowledge sharing culture.

Originality/value

The research comprehends the tacit knowledge sharing framework with theoretical arrangements of trust, social networks, commitment and culture in higher education workplace settings under the umbrella of social capital theory.

Details

VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, vol. 53 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5891

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2007

Karl Erik Sveiby

The purpose of this paper is to analyse issues that prevent knowledge sharing in organisations.

2622

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse issues that prevent knowledge sharing in organisations.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper contains content analysis of 691 free text comments about the climate for knowledge sharing provided by 848 employees, primarily knowledge workers, in 92 business units and departments.

Findings

The paper finds that two main issues that prevent knowledge sharing are the attitudes of the nearest supervisor and a lack of context‐building information. Apathetic managers, who do not actively encourage business/organisational information, and hypocritical managers, who do not “walk the talk”, are the main management behaviours that prevent knowledge sharing according to their subordinates in the sample. The study also suggests that a lack of organisational context‐building information and knowledge impacts the context negatively and makes knowledge workers less prone to share knowledge also in their work groups.

Research limitations/implications

The sample is too small to draw conclusions valid beyond the sample organisations. Respondents in the sample are primarily non‐managers in Europe and Australia. Context‐building knowledge and information have been largely ignored in the knowledge sharing literature. Also, non‐managers tend not to be targeted as respondents in studies on knowledge sharing. The study suggests that managers' apathy should be considered a disabling behaviour with regard to context.

Practical implications

The silo walls in organisations are built of apathy. Few managers actively prevent or resist sharing of knowledge. However, knowledge sharing requires enabling management behaviours. Sharing business/organisational information not related to tasks communicates priority and provides context necessary also for sharing in the work groups.

Originality/value

The paper provides useful information on issues that prevent knowledge sharing in organisations.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 45 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2013

Ruth C. May and Wayne H. Stewart

The purpose of this paper is to address theory development in the context of Russia, where insights holding potential to advance knowledge sharing theory are ubiquitous. Drawing…

1130

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address theory development in the context of Russia, where insights holding potential to advance knowledge sharing theory are ubiquitous. Drawing on contextual evidence, the paper aims to advance a theoretical framework for the study of knowledge sharing, an activity essential for the organizational change and development required for building competitiveness. It also aims to outline research needs that might both provide insight in Russia and also enrich extant theory originally developed in the West.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents a review of the theory of planned behavior, its application to knowledge sharing, and the cultural environment suggest modifications that contextualize the theory for studying knowledge sharing in Russia and in other contexts.

Findings

Propositions based on contextual considerations in Russia are advanced as a means of modifying and augmenting the theory of planned behavior to better address knowledge sharing more comprehensively across contexts.

Research limitations/implications

The paper provides suggestions for testing the propositions, and offers additional research directions and considerations that might guide inquiry into knowledge sharing.

Practical implications

Knowledge hoarding is a concern of all managers, particularly in Russia. The research enabled by the efforts here might improve practice by identifying impediments to knowledge sharing, and inform successful intervention to improve the likelihood of accomplishing organizational initiatives in both Russian firms and in foreign entities operating in Russia.

Originality/value

The paper emphasizes the value of theoretical approaches that cross‐fertilize emic and etic perspectives on theory development by using contextual enhancement of the theory of planned behavior through inclusion of cultural values and interpersonal behaviors related to knowledge sharing/hoarding that are pervasive in Russia. This kind of double‐loop theorizing is a means of leveraging management research across contexts. Based on the refined and extended theory of planned behavior, a research agenda for studying knowledge sharing is offered that describes methodological and content considerations that might benefit management theory in Russia and in the West.

Details

Critical perspectives on international business, vol. 9 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 February 2012

Rodney McAdam, Sandra Moffett and Jian Peng

The majority of knowledge management theory and practice literature is based on, and relates to, western and Japanese business environments and related assumptions. A number of

3433

Abstract

Purpose

The majority of knowledge management theory and practice literature is based on, and relates to, western and Japanese business environments and related assumptions. A number of generic knowledge management cross sectional studies based on Chinese organizations have taken place; however there is a lack of in‐depth critical studies which are culturally grounded and which focus on a particular aspect or domain of knowledge management in Chinese organizations, as opposed to applying western or Japanese knowledge management models and concepts. Hence the paper seeks to make a contribution by carrying out a critical study in knowledge sharing within Chinese organizations that explores the role of culture in relation to the knowledge‐sharing process, where the people‐based aspects of knowledge sharing are likely to be influenced by the prevailing culture. The aim of the paper is to explore the role of knowledge sharing at multiple organizational levels within Chinese service‐based organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

Five consulting firms are analyzed within the multi case study, to explore knowledge sharing at multiple levels, where existing literature and preliminary research has shown that consulting organizations in the service sector are more likely to have advanced their understanding of knowledge sharing as a source of innovation and competitiveness. The research methods included interviews (n=40), focus groups (n=10) and observations made during four visits, each of several weeks, to the companies. The five organizations were Chinese owned and at a similar growth stage and hence the effects of external cultures or organizational specific cultures were secondary to that of the prevailing Chinese culture.

Findings

The findings show that cultural interpretations of knowledge sharing practices can help in explaining Chinese conceptions and applications of knowledge sharing at multiple organizational levels. Moreover these cultural influences suggest that non‐Chinese conceptions of knowledge sharing can in some circumstances result in misleading approaches being used in attempting to promote knowledge sharing in a Chinese context and that the strong group culture is a key vehicle for knowledge sharing as opposed to individual idea generation.

Research limitations/implications

The findings show the need for further research in comparing Chinese and western organizations in relation to collaboration knowledge sharing where the case organizations have had different levels of exposure to western culture. Much more in‐depth case‐based research is needed to explore these contextual issues and to develop theoretical propositions.

Practical implications

The extrapolation of western and Japanese‐based knowledge sharing concepts and practices to Chinese contexts without an examination of Chinese culture and its impact on organizational culture may produce sub‐optimal results. A more culturally grounded approach, where knowledge sharing practices are indigenously grounded, is suggested.

Originality/value

There is a paucity of multi‐level knowledge sharing studies which seek to both address cultural considerations and systematically inquire into the development of knowledge sharing in Chinese organizations from a cultural perspective. The findings from this study can help inform western‐Chinese business collaboration through improved understanding of the cultural effects on knowledge sharing.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 April 2015

Vincenzo Cavaliere and Sara Lombardi

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of different cultural typologies (i.e. innovative, competitive, bureaucratic and community) on employees’ knowledge-sharing

2444

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of different cultural typologies (i.e. innovative, competitive, bureaucratic and community) on employees’ knowledge-sharing processes within multinational corporations (MNCs) by taking a subsidiary perspective. It particularly applies the competing values framework to the study of individuals’ orientations toward sharing knowledge with others while also investigating the influence of top management support on such orientations.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the proposed hypotheses, in this paper, survey data of 389 employees from six Italian subsidiaries are empirically analyzed by running hierarchical regressions on the two dimensions of knowledge-sharing processes, i.e. knowledge donating and knowledge collecting.

Findings

The results show that the four types of organizational culture differently affect the knowledge-sharing sub-processes and confirm the importance of a strong top management support to facilitate interpersonal relationships.

Research limitations/implications

Despite the cross-sectional nature of the data and the limitations arising from the subsidiaries’ position in the country, the findings suggest managers to pay great attention to the positive side of bureaucracy by emphasizing the need for order and efficiency while, at the same time, providing employees with a constant and encouraging support toward knowledge-sharing activities.

Originality/value

The paper adds empirical evidence to the limited existing research on knowledge-sharing sub-processes of knowledge donating and collecting, extends the understanding of how different organizational cultures affect such processes, and contributes to the literature on MNCs’ knowledge-based activities by adopting a subsidiary perspective.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 19 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 15000