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The purpose of this paper is to explore the relations among knowledge sharing (KS), intellectual capital (IC), absorptive capacity (AC), innovation (IN) and organizational performance (OP).

This paper empirically tests a model that uses structural equation modeling (SEM) based on a partial least squares (PLS). The sample is composed of 351 Brazilian and 135 Portuguese enterprises. They are micro, small and medium enterprises.

The results show that: the relation between KS and AC is partially mediated by IC; the relation between IC and IN is partially mediated by AC and the relation between KS and IN is mediated by AC and IC or both. There are relations among KS, IC, AC, IN and OP.

The study does not control for industry effects and technological differences among the firms.

The use of KS mitigates the loss of knowledge associated to employees' retirement or job changes. The knowledge appropriation by the organization (turning human capital (HC) into structural capital (SC)), the knowledge achieved from connections (relational capital, RC) and the trust embedded in an organization's relation with employees are important for AC and IN. Moreover, KS can positively influence all elements of IC. OP depends directly on IN and indirectly on the others constructs.

This study is relevant because it explores the relations among KS, IC, AC, IN and OP in one model. Moreover, it focuses on small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) with data from two countries.

The purpose of this study is to propose and test a model on the impact of diversity over performance using a Portuguese national wide comprehensively matched employee–employer dataset of small businesses.

The study uses structural equation modeling to analyze the relationships between variables. The study addresses the impact of top managers and employees' diversity on firm performance considering two dimensions of diversity: knowledge diversity and social diversity.

The study provides a clear understanding of how workforce diversity affects performance differently at the two hierarchical levels. Both employees' diversities have stronger relations to performance than the diversity of top managers. Results point out to idiosyncratic aspects of services firms' dynamics that should be further explored.

The study presents some limitations, since it uses data from a single country and the dataset provides limited variables.

The study offers evidence on the effects of diversity in small businesses alerting managers to acknowledge such influence when recruiting, selecting and training. With regard to services firms, managers should pay close attention to negative impacts of diversity over performance.

Never before to the authors' knowledge the managers' level diversity and employees' level diversity (considering two dimensions each) effect on performance have been addressed in a single national wide study.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how knowledge takes effect in different software development methodologies by relating them to different knowledge cycles.

The results were find by conducing a general review about the topics of knowledge cycles and software development methodologies.

All software development methodologies have knowledge cycles. In Waterfall methodology, the cycle followed is I-Space. For “code and fix,” there is a parallel with March’s cycle. Scrum shows a parallel with SECI cycle. Among the methodological options, results show there an increase in hierarchy, documentation, processes and explicit knowledge.

Identified parallels of each methodology with knowledge cycles; established which Scrum artifacts are performed at each stage of SECI, which Waterfall steps correspond to I-Space phases and which activities in “code and fix” deal with exploration and exploitation of knowledge; and features shown increase or decrease according to the adoption of each methodology.

Results help knowledge sharing implementations and foster inter-team knowledge sharing, with the identification of the correct methodology-cycle match and the personalization of the strategy for each team based on the adopted methodology. Training for knowledge initiatives can be improved by determining how knowledge-sharing activities are incorporated on the determined series of actions established by the methodologies adopted on the firm.

The identification of how knowledge is generated and shared among teams in each methodology, the optimum pairing of the methodology and the parallels with the other, and the differences that emerge from the adopted knowledge cycle show that software projects are embedded in a knowledge cycle.

This study aims to identify the influence of knowledge management processes on the performance of basic education, including both private and confessional organizations.

This study is based on a positivist view of science and adopts a quantitative approach. A survey was conducted that received 242 answers, which were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

All the knowledge management processes were found to impact all the dimensions of organizational performance in the schools. The role knowledge creation exerts on people in the organization was made apparent, as was the way in which knowledge storage impacts three Balanced Scorecard dimensions, namely, people, internal processes and sustainability.

This research is limited to private confessional basic education schools in Brazil that work at one or more levels of basic education.

This research is intended to help educational managers improve their knowledge management practices and achieve better performance within the educational environment.

The present study identifies two topics which are still under-investigated in the field of private confessional basic education, namely: the knowledge management processes and the Balanced Scorecard approach.

This paper aims to uncover the combinations of knowledge sharing mechanisms that organizations in a science and technology park in Brazil use to share managerial and technical knowledge.

This research adopts a qualitative approach that uses a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to analyze data that are gathered from 51 managers of organizations in a science and technology park.

The results show that knowledge sharing happens regardless of the type of knowledge. There are more alternative paths that lead to knowledge sharing than to its absence. Regarding the type of knowledge shared, there are more alternative configurations that lead to managerial knowledge sharing than to technical knowledge sharing. Only the older organizations in the science and technology park abstain from knowledge sharing.

Due to the qualitative nature of the study, no generalization is possible. Additionally, the study’s limitation is that it involves organizations from a single science and technology park.

The results offer managers of organizations in science and technology parks to choose from alternative combinations of mechanisms to either boost their knowledge sharing or to promote knowledge protection.

The paper provides an original contribution by identifying the combinations of mechanisms that organizations in a science and technology park use that leads to the sharing of specific knowledge types. The findings also identify the combination of mechanisms that older organizations use that prevents them from sharing knowledge.

This study aims to resolve contradictions in the literature regarding the relationship between knowledge sharing (KS) and absorptive capacity (AC). The authors analyze the reasons for which KS has been interpreted as an antecedent and those for which it has been seen as a consequent of AC.

The study uses a systematic review of the literature to identify the arguments supporting the relationships between the constructs and propose a model. Additionally, the hypotheses were tested using SEM to assess the proposed model.

The findings reveal the nature of the relationship between KS and AC. Suggesting AC is bi-dimensional, consisting of potential AC and realized AC, while the relationship between these two dimensions depends on KS.

This study provides consistent theoretical grounds for future empirical research. The study findings demonstrate KS provides a real contribution towards AC, validating the previous literature on the impact of KS antecedents on realized AC. Additionally, the authors provide evidence to suggest knowledge donation is an output of the AC process, thus generating a debate on the nature of knowledge donation (requested vs unrequested), which raises interesting research questions to be addressed in the future. As a limitation, empirical data was only collected in the context of software development in two countries.

The results elucidate the central role of knowledge collection within AC. For managers, the importance of the role of knowledge collection to fully benefit from AC and exploit knowledge is highlighted.

The research design is original in that it combines a systematic and integrative literature review to the ground and propose hypotheses with empirically testing of the emerging model. The study clarifies the relationship between KS and AC, providing evidence to show knowledge donation is an output of the AC process. The benefits of this study can be seen at the team and firm-level.

Knowledge sharing among individuals from different teams is rare. Agile methods encourage only the exchange of tacit knowledge within teams. This study aims to analyse the influence of trust, norms of cooperation and reciprocity on tacit and explicit knowledge sharing among individuals from different software development teams.

Data were collected using a cross-sectional survey involving 205 individuals working in software development teams. The authors adopted a mixed-methods approach involving partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

PLS-SEM shows: the antecedents have different influence in tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) and in explicit knowledge sharing (EKS); trust influences directly TKS, and it only influences EKS indirectly, while reciprocity influences TKS directly and EKS both directly and indirectly; norms of cooperation directly influence TKS, and they only influence EKS indirectly. Overall, the fsQCA findings support PLS-SEM results: TKS contributes to EKS; reciprocity or trust is a sufficient condition for TKS and EKS; norms of cooperation are a sufficient condition for TKS; larger firms without high levels of reciprocity and trust cannot expect TKS and EKS. The quantitative and qualitative results are aligned.

The results cannot be generalisable because snowball sampling was used, and most of the respondents were Brazilians.

This study should help managers and scholars: to appreciate the relevancy of TKS among individuals using agile methods to nurture EKS and to understand the different effects of reciprocity, trust and norms of cooperation on both TKS and EKS.

Considering three constructs, this study uses a mixed-methods approach to investigate the potential of the relational dimension of social capital theory to leverage TKS and EKS, to overcome the limitations of agile methods. The originality of this study regards that it shows the constructs of relational social capital influencing TKS and EKS differently.

This paper aims to analyse the relationship between knowledge management processes and innovation (KM-IN) in Brazilian and Portuguese companies.

The tests were performed using a sequential mixed-method approach. Quantitative analysis was conducted using 341 observations from Brazilian and Portuguese companies and partial least squares techniques. Qualitative analysis was conducted using ten interviews and content analysis techniques.

Results showed differences between Brazilian and Portuguese companies with respect to the relationship between knowledge sharing process and innovation. Portuguese companies cope with the geographical dispersal of operations and the lack of interpersonal skills by introducing formal knowledge sharing processes.

Findings demonstrate that the transfer of knowledge processes to foreign countries may demand adjustments according to cultural traits. Specifically, the findings will be of interest to firms intending to expand their activities between Brazil and Portugal.

Although researchers have investigated the influence of the national context in many countries, country comparisons are still scarce.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impacts of Portfolio size effect due to scaling issues in the outcome obtained in a project portfolio selection for an electricity company in Brazil, focusing on improving business strategic performance.

The study uses a web-based decision support system (DSS), in which scaling issues are considered, incorporating results of previous work. The study evaluates 32 projects from the electricity company and compared the possible results when considering different scales. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to analyze the robustness of the case, using the web-based DSS.

The results for an interval scale context showed a portfolio with 21 projects, contrasting with the correct solution of a portfolio containing 23 projects. The latter is related to a ratio scale context, with the proper transformation of weights, which was found to be robust with a sensitivity analysis using Monte Carlo simulation. This demonstrates that only appropriate models for selecting projects can improve the contribution to the company’s permanent strategies of increasing productivity, considering its constraints to achieve optimal results.

Additive value functions approach imposes certain requirements on the measurement scales used for the items in a portfolio that should not be ignored, once they have significant impact on the general portfolio results, which are directly related to the business strategic performance and the facilities of doing that with a web-based DSS.

The creation of offshore units allows companies to invest in countries that offer tax incentives, and provides global presence. Nevertheless, knowledge sharing in global teams may be challenger. The aim of this paper is to analyze the barriers of knowledge sharing in global teams.

This is a qualitative research based on interviews in two firms.

The interviewees confirmed the relevance of the barriers to knowledge sharing identified in the literature. The interviewees also cited other four barriers: technology, professional skills, cost and methodology of software development. Other results were: the relationship between the barriers, for example, cultural differences are negatively related to absorptive capacity; and, the barriers could also be enablers for knowledge sharing.

The limitations identified were: the use the interview as the only form of data collection, since the firms did not authorize the collection of documents; the interviews were conducted in two ways, in person for those residing in the same city as the researchers and via Skype^® for those who were in another city; the findings are based on two case studies of two different firms and are not generalizable.

This research offers a new perspective and a better understanding of the interaction and relationships among knowledge sharing barriers. The results of this research may be useful for academics and organizations because they deepen the discussion on knowledge sharing in global teams, and also show the reality of two organizations in the technology sector in relation to this subject.