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1 – 10 of over 23000Qianwen Zhou, Shou Chen, Xiaopeng Deng and Amin Mahmoudi
This paper aims to explore the key factors affecting knowledge transfer within cross-cultural teams in international construction projects from three levels: individual factors…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the key factors affecting knowledge transfer within cross-cultural teams in international construction projects from three levels: individual factors, team factors and knowledge characteristics. It also provides a comprehensive framework to examine how trust, cultural distance, team identification, knowledge tacitness and complexity and members' transfer willingness impact knowledge transfer effectiveness within cross-cultural teams.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model and 16 hypotheses were put forward through the literature review and pilot investigation. This study used structural equation modeling to examine how factors affect the effectiveness of knowledge transfer within cross-cultural teams based on the questionnaire data of samples from Chinese international construction projects.
Findings
The findings show that affect-based trust and team identification positively affect the willingness to contribute knowledge. Conversely, knowledge tacitness, knowledge complexity and cultural distance negatively influence contribute willingness. Moreover, affect-based trust, cognition-based trust and team identity positively affect receive willingness, while cultural distance negatively impacts receive willingness. Additionally, affect-based and cognition-based trust, knowledge tacitness and complexity affect transfer effectiveness through the full mediation of transfer willingness, while cultural distance and team identity affect transfer effectiveness through the partial mediation of transfer willingness.
Research limitations/implications
On the one hand, this research provides a holistic framework for factors affecting knowledge transfer within cross-cultural teams from three levels: individual factors, team factors and knowledge characteristics. On the other hand, the paper gives other researchers in international project management the enlightenment of focusing on members' cultural structure and the cross-cultural training of the team.
Practical implications
This study offers the direction for cross-cultural team managers to formulate helpful approaches for knowledge transfer and assist corporate leaders in taking integral control measures to enhance knowledge transfer effectiveness within the team.
Originality/value
This study provides other researchers with a comprehensive understanding of the key factors affecting knowledge transfer within cross-cultural teams in international construction projects and insight for further research on project management and knowledge management.
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The aim of this paper is to shed light on how subsidiary willingness to transfer knowledge is influenced by formal control mechanisms from headquarters, and how this affects…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to shed light on how subsidiary willingness to transfer knowledge is influenced by formal control mechanisms from headquarters, and how this affects knowledge transfer performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study highlights and tests the influence of two formal control mechanisms: formal demand to transfer knowledge from headquarters, and performance evaluation system related to knowledge transfer. This is tested by subjecting a dataset of 149 knowledge transfer processes to a two‐stage least square regression analysis.
Findings
The robust results indicate that formal evaluation systems related to subsidiary knowledge transfer increases subsidiary willingness to transfer, and subsequently knowledge transfer performance, whereas formal demand by headquarters to share knowledge show a negative but not significant impact.
Practical implications
The results highlight the strategic importance of eliminating motivational barriers in order to enhance knowledge transfer performance. By using outbound knowledge as a criterion when evaluating the subsidiary, managers can increase transfer performance by fostering subsidiary willingness to perform knowledge transfer.
Originality/value
The findings indicate that KM in terms of subsidiary transfer willingness and transfer performance can be fostered and enhanced by the introduction of formal evaluation systems related to knowledge sharing. The results also contribute by revealing that formal control mechanisms differ in their degree of influence in terms of fostering subsidiary transfer willingness and transfer performance.
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Shan Zhou, Luping Qin, Jixuan Zhang and Xinying Cao
This paper aims to employ social cognitive theory (SCT) as a theoretical framework to investigate the influencing factors affecting the knowledge transfer effectiveness of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to employ social cognitive theory (SCT) as a theoretical framework to investigate the influencing factors affecting the knowledge transfer effectiveness of construction workers in China. The mediating role of their knowledge transfer willingness is also assessed.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire on knowledge transfer among Chinese construction workers is designed and subsequently analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM), with a total sample of 288 construction workers.
Findings
The SEM results show that the knowledge self-efficiency, blood and geographic relationships, and trust relationship promote knowledge transfer willingness and positively influence the knowledge transfer effectiveness of construction workers. However, the effect of organizational culture on knowledge transfer willingness and effectiveness is nonsignificant.
Practical implications
The results are conducive to managers and governments formulating strategies to optimize the learning mechanism of construction workers and facilitate their obtaining of resources from the project, thus easing skill shortages and promoting the transformation of construction workers into industrial workers.
Originality/value
This paper innovatively proposes blood and geographic relationships as research variables, expanding their scope. Furthermore, SCT is applied to enable future research to better understand individual knowledge transfer behavior from both personal and environmental perspectives.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence migrant workers' household registration transfer willingness at both individual and urban levels and to provide…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence migrant workers' household registration transfer willingness at both individual and urban levels and to provide empirical evidence on adjusting the household registration system to accommodate economic development and migrant workers' imbalances.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a hierarchical nonlinear model and examines individual and urban influencing factors of migrant workers' household registration transfer willingness, based on the data from China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) and the Urban Statistical Yearbooks.
Findings
This paper shows that: (1) multi-factors, such as age, education, marital status, household demographics, industry and migrant workers' contract coverage, have significant effects on migrant workers' household registration transfer willingness; (2) The urban public service equalization indicators, such as regional economic, educational resources, medical care and ecological quality, have significant effects on migrant workers' willingness to transfer household registration; (3) The heterogeneity of migrant workers' willingness to transfer household registration is significant in central, eastern and western China.
Research limitations/implications
The authors provide a fresh perspective on population migration research in China and other countries worldwide based on the pull–push migration theory, which incorporates both individual and macro (urban) factors, enabling a comprehensive examination of the factors influencing household registration transfer willingness. This hierarchical ideology and approach (hierarchical nonlinear model) could be extended to investigate the influencing factors of various other human intentions and behaviors.
Originality/value
Micro approaches (individual perspective) have dominated existing studies examining the factors influencing migrant workers' household registration transfer willingness. The authors combine individual and urban perspectives and adopt a more comprehensive hierarchical nonlinear model to extend the empirical evidence and provide theoretical explanations for the above issues.
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Stephie Hsin-Ju Tsai and Mo Yamin
Purpose – This research aims to understand inter-subsidiary innovation transfers from a subsidiary business network perspective. We examine transfer performance with particular…
Abstract
Purpose – This research aims to understand inter-subsidiary innovation transfers from a subsidiary business network perspective. We examine transfer performance with particular interest in the influence of subsidiary business networks in innovation development stage. The moderating effect of knowledge inputs, that is, external and internal business partners, on transfer efficiency and effectiveness are hypothesized.
Methodology/approach – This study utilizes the data of 129 inter-subsidiary transfer projects from 19 multinational corporations. The empirical analysis specifically examines how and to what extent the development partnership – source of knowledge inputs – affects the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation transfer between subsidiaries.
Findings – The results indicate that the source of knowledge inputs influence transfer performance indirectly, but not directly. The impact is made through the dyadic relationship to the transfer performance. The findings complement the literature on innovation/knowledge transfer by incorporating innovation development into scrutiny and gauging transfer efficiency and effectiveness explicitly.
Value of paper – The empirical evidence highlights the significance of dyadic willingness to both transfer efficiency and effectiveness. Its influence to transfer performance exceeds that of dyadic similarity or previous collaboration experience. The result provides useful managerial implications to MNCs headquarters and subsidiaries. The lack of previous collaboration experience or technical similarity may pose the down side for innovation transfer between subsidiaries. But that should not put off the initiatives to conduct innovation transfers. Such problem could be effectively remedied by strong willingness between the dyad. The resources and support that subsidiaries receive could counteract the hurdle of dissimilarity and unfamiliarity.
The transfer of technical know‐how is now recognised as an essential component in the globalised expansion of multinational companies. As these companies offshore or outsource…
Abstract
Purpose
The transfer of technical know‐how is now recognised as an essential component in the globalised expansion of multinational companies. As these companies offshore or outsource their operations the success of the new facility can depend on the ability to convey both tacit and explicit knowledge willingly during all phases of the transfer. There is a lack of clarity in current literature on the success factors for effective transfer of knowledge on production parts transfer and an absence of frameworks. The purpose of the research reported in this paper is to examine documented success factors and propose an integrated framework.
Design/methodology/approach
Peer reviewed literature was used to establish dominant themes on knowledge‐sharing from which interview and survey were designed and undertaken to establish motivating factors.
Findings
Five key themes required for successful knowledge transfer were established for moving parts to new production facilities: willingness to share information, willingness to receive information, explicit knowledge transfer, tacit knowledge transfer and verification. These were then assembled into a transfer of technical intellect framework for knowledge transfer to new facilities.
Research limitations/implications
The research draws from the experience of practitioners across multiple parts transfers rather than examining a specific transfer. This work brings research not previously brought together. It draws from the literature and a significant survey of a large multi‐site engineering company and future work needs to be carried out to examine the generalisability of the work.
Practical implications
The proposed framework guides the tacit as well as explicit transfer of technical knowledge of production parts between facilities.
Originality/value
The research identifies the key themes and motivating factors for transferring tacit product knowledge to another organisation.
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Xi Yu, Awudu Abdulai and Dongmei Li
This study aims to examine farmers' decision to use smartphone agricultural applications (SAAs) and how SAAs adoption impact their land transfer behaviors in terms of the current…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine farmers' decision to use smartphone agricultural applications (SAAs) and how SAAs adoption impact their land transfer behaviors in terms of the current land transfer-in area (LTA) and the future willingness to renew land transfer-in after it expires (WTR).
Design/methodology/approach
This study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between farmers' use of SAAs and land transfer choice, using a field survey data of 752 rural farm households in 2020 from Sichuan province of China. The endogenous switching models are employed to address potential self-selection bias associated with voluntary SAAs use and to quantitatively examine the impacts of SAAs use on land transfer choice.
Findings
The empirical results reveal that SAAs significantly improves the probability of transfer-in of more land by 39.10%. We find SAAs use has heterogeneous impacts on land transfer-in choice in the groups of agricultural technology, extension service, marketing and credit. Besides, we also find that SAAs use exerts highly positive and significant impact on farmers with less land area transfer-in. Moreover, SAAs can increase the probability of farmers' willingness to renew the land transfer-in by 30%.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to explore the quantitative relationship between the use of SAAs and farm households' land transfer choice. The findings of this work can provide policy-related insights to help government promote the development of digital applications in the agricultural sector.
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Huang Huan, Ma Yongyuan, Zhang Sheng and Dou Qinchao
The aim of this study is to provide some important insights for knowledge stickiness from the perspective of the characteristic of knowledge and the people engaged in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to provide some important insights for knowledge stickiness from the perspective of the characteristic of knowledge and the people engaged in the knowledge transfer. It proposes an empirical model about factors that influence knowledge stickiness.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on knowledge-based view (KBV), this paper systematically elaborated the research model, and then conducted a survey to test the hypotheses. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews in R&D team of knowledge-intensive firms in China. The empirical results generally support the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The paper provides empirical insights about how the knowledge transfer willingness, transfer ability, knowledge residence, knowledge articulability and absorption ability affect the knowledge stickiness in the process of knowledge transfer in R&D team.
Research limitations/implications
This paper provides guidelines about how firms should optimally respond to knowledge stickiness in knowledge transfer process practically.
Practical implications
The proposed framework helps to understand what factors impact knowledge stickiness in R&D teams. Furthermore, the research also provides guidelines about how firms should optimally respond to knowledge stickiness in knowledge transfer process practically from both aspects of characteristics of knowledge itself and people involved in knowledge transfer.
Originality/value
This study, grounded on KBV, constructs a countermeasure model of weakening knowledge stickiness, which contributes to an understanding of factors leading to the success or failure of knowledge transfer. It eventually theoretically extends the KBV of the firm and commits to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge transfer practically.
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Jing Hua Li, Xiao Ran Chang, Li Lin and Li Ya Ma
This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the influencing factors on knowledge transfer through meta-analysis with an emphasis on the influence of cultural contexts.…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the influencing factors on knowledge transfer through meta-analysis with an emphasis on the influence of cultural contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach involved the evaluation and analysis of 69 published empirical studies and the categorization of these studies into two groups based on different cultural contexts as described by Hofstede. A meta-analytic approach was then employed to provide a comparative analysis of the categorized studies.
Findings
The results of the meta-analysis of the influencing factors of knowledge transfer are consistent with the results obtained in most previous studies, indicating a maturation of research in this area. Influencing factors such as knowledge ambiguity, tie strength, trust, and common cognition are shown to impact knowledge transfer in different cultural contexts, particularly with regard to the individualism-low power distance and collectivism-high power distance dimensions defined by Hofstede.
Research limitations/implications
This analysis was limited to the correlation between the influencing factors and the general performance in knowledge transfer and did not specifically address more detailed dimensions such as efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, this analysis was restricted to the cultural contexts of only two cultural dimensions. However, the review of this broad range of studies provided sufficient data to allow an in-depth analysis of related influencing factors and helped to illustrate and exemplify the influencing mechanisms of culture on knowledge transfer.
Practical implications
The results presented in this paper can help managers working in cross-cultural environments to understand the key influencing factors that affect knowledge transfer in the workplace. By understanding these factors, managers can more effectively implement methods and procedures that improve cross-cultural knowledge transfer in the work environment.
Originality/value
This paper provides a detailed insight into the influencing factors found between two distinctive cultural contexts and offers a fresh analysis of influencing factors with regard to knowledge transfer in a cross-cultural environment.
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Qianwen Zhou, Xiaopeng Deng, Bon-Gang Hwang and Miao Yu
Although knowledge transfer in the context of projects and project-based organizations (PBOs) has gained increasing attention from academia and industry, it is not clear how…
Abstract
Purpose
Although knowledge transfer in the context of projects and project-based organizations (PBOs) has gained increasing attention from academia and industry, it is not clear how knowledge transfers from projects to their parent PBOs. This research aims to explore the main factors influencing knowledge transfer from projects to their parent PBOs, and analyze how these factors integrate the transfer process as system components using the system dynamics (SD) method.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the literature review, investigation and interview, this paper adopts the event analysis to obtain the influencing factors from historical cases and establishes a conceptual model of knowledge transfer from five dimensions, which simultaneously considers the knowledge sender, knowledge receiver and the relationship between the knowledge sender and receiver, knowledge features and transfer context. Then, the relationships between variables in the qualitative model were clarified, and a quantitative model including seven feedback loops was established using the SD model. Lastly, the system simulation and sensitivity analysis of the main parameters were realized in Vensim PLE software.
Findings
The simulation analysis results show that the model can simulate the knowledge transfer process from projects to the PBO to a certain extent. This research fully demonstrates the impact of variables from five dimensions on knowledge transfer and incorporates the knowledge gap and transfer threshold in the research category. Moreover, the rationality of seven feedback loops proposed in the model was verified. And the effects of various factors on the amount of knowledge transferred and the PBO's knowledge stock were examined through sensitivity analysis. Furthermore, recommendations for developing an integrated knowledge transfer mechanism of PBOs and projects to enhance transfer effect are offered.
Research limitations/implications
This research provides other researchers with a systematic understanding of transfer process from projects to PBOs, and insight for further research on knowledge transfer in project and organization contexts. Furthermore, this study guides researchers to focus on the causal processes that constitute knowledge transfer and explores the expected and unexpected phenomena generated over time. However, some variables involved in the transfer process are simplified, and the establishment of a more complex dynamic model needs further research and discussion.
Practical implications
By establishing a simulation model for knowledge transfer from projects to their parent PBOs, this study helps project teams and PBOs grasp the overall picture of the transfer process. Especially, this paper provides target-oriented recommendations for project and PBO managers to implement effective knowledge transfer practices, which have certain practical values for knowledge cultivation, coordination, reuse and innovation in the organization.
Originality/value
This study contributes to knowledge management and project management literature by simulating the knowledge transfer process from projects to their parent PBOs. Additionally, this paper provides a reference for PBO and project managers to establish an integrated knowledge-transfer mechanism in the work process and comprehensively implement effective knowledge transfer practices.
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