This study measures the relationship between tacit knowledge sharing and innovation in the Polish (n = 350) and US (n = 379) IT industries. Conceptually, the study identifies the potential sources of ...tacit knowledge development by individuals. That is, the study examines how “learning by doing” and “learning by interaction” lead to a willingness to share knowledge and, as a consequence, to support process and product/service innovation. This study empirically demonstrates that tacit knowledge internalization and externalization (awareness and sharing) significantly mediate between tacit knowledge experimentation and socialization (acquisition) and its final combination (knowledge in action). While such theoretical assumptions already exist, they have not yet been empirically explained and revealed in a single structural model. Further, this empirical approach enabled a demonstration that internalization and externalization of tacit knowledge may occur consciously or unconsciously with equal success. Even so, the study also showed conscious tacit knowledge’s greater impact on innovation. Therefore, an organizational effort to manage autonomous, informal, and strongly contextual tacit knowledge is worthwhile and creates the capacity for superior competitive advantage. Finally, this study also demonstrates that national context influences tacit knowledge acquisition. In the US, “learning by doing” is dominant, whereas in Poland, “learning by interaction” and critical thinking are more common. This might be related to factors such as risk acceptance that could be studied in more detail and provide opportunities for future research.
•Tacit knowledge is a valuable input into innovation processes.•Knowledge obtained by experience or by interaction can differ in impact.•Awareness, critical thinking, and willingness to share enhance tacit effectiveness.•Innovation type (product or process) varies in how tacit influences outcomes.•Tacit knowledge and innovation relationships can vary by country (USA vs. Poland).
Purpose
Knowledge sharing has become an integral part of organizations’ business strategies, along with aiding organizations to grow and innovate in the market, and gain competitive advantage. This ...paper aims to concentrate on the role of tacit knowledge sharing in fostering innovation capability of an organization. Specifically, the study considers social capital (relational, cognitive and structural) as an important precursors to tacit knowledge sharing, which in turn, influences innovation capability of an organization. The study further discusses the role that knowledge reciprocation plays in successful tacit knowledge sharing. The relation between knowledge quality and innovation capability is also discussed in the paper.
Design/methodology/approach
The investigation started with a review of extant literature in the field of knowledge sharing and innovation to derive a set of constructs. A set of hypotheses was developed based on the identified constructs, which was subsequently validated through a primary survey based on a structured questionnaire on a sample size of 190 respondents from the Indian industrial domain. The survey responses were subsequently analysed using the statistical technique of structural equation modeling and conclusions were drawn from the findings. Additionally, careful attention was paid in eliminating the common method bias, which is often associated with a primary survey.
Findings
A set of six hypotheses were derived based on the identified constructs and were subsequently validated. While validating the hypotheses, it was observed that while knowledge reciprocity, relational social capital and cognitive social capital was positive associated with tacit knowledge sharing, structural social capital did not have a significant effect on the same. Additionally, it was also observed that both tacit knowledge sharing and the quality of knowledge were positively associated with innovation capability.
Practical implications
The present day business marked by intense competition requires firms to be more aware of their innovative capabilities. Effective sharing of knowledge or information can be deemed as a vital component in achieving this objective. Organizations that practice and nurture innovation activities can use the findings of the current study as a part of their knowledge management strategy. In addition to using the explicit knowledge, which are structured in nature, organizations can also start using tacit knowledge to harness their innovation potential – and the findings from the current study can act as a motivational tool for them to do so.
Originality/value
Although there is a growing body of literature concerning the role of knowledge management in innovation, there still a dearth in discussing the role of tacit knowledge sharing in exploiting the innovation capability of an organization. The main discussion of this paper brings together a set of important constructs that exhibits the significant role that tacit knowledge sharing plays in determining the innovation capability of an organization. Furthermore, it tries to marry the concepts of social capital and tacit knowledge sharing with innovation capability, therefore adding significantly to the body of literature in knowledge management as well as innovation.
Purpose
Given the important role of frugal innovation for firms in the developing and emerging countries, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of transformational leadership (TL) on ...frugal innovation through the mediating roles of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper used a quantitative research method and structural equation modeling to test the relationship among the latent factors based on a sample of 339 participants from 120 Vietnamese firms.
Findings
Findings reveal the significant impacts of TL on aspects of frugal innovation, namely, frugal functionality, frugal cost and frugal ecosystem. Moreover, the paper highlights the mediating roles of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing (KS) in the relationship between TL and frugal innovation in terms of frugal functionality and frugal cost.
Research limitations/implications
To bring a deeper understanding of the benefits and important role of knowledge resources, future research should investigate the potential mediating mechanisms of knowledge management processes in the relationship between specific leadership styles and frugal innovation.
Practical implications
The paper provides a valuable understanding and novel approach for managers and directors of firms in developing and emerging countries to improve their firms’ frugal innovation capability through leadership practice and knowledge resources.
Originality/value
This study contributes to bridging research gaps in the literature and advances the insights of how TL directly and indirectly fosters frugal innovation via mediating roles of tacit and explicit KS.
O conhecimento tácito nas empresas é cada vez mais valioso, apesar da dificuldade de capturá-lo, as empresas têm dado cada vez mais importância na retenção deste conhecimento. A padronização do ...conhecimento é uma forma de reter o conhecimento tácito, principalmente quando as informações envolvem estratégias de produção. Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar como a transformação do conhecimento tácito, como ele pode ser usado para alavancar a estratégia de produção frente ao surgimento de novas demandas produtivas. Visa uma compreensão do conhecimento, da estratégia de produção frente ao surgimento de novas demandas, planejamento e controle da produção (PCP) e o uso de ferramentas como o DMAIC na implementação de projetos.
The study seeks to identify the main facilitators and barriers of tacit knowledge transfer that influence innovation capabilities of the supplier within the buyer-supplier collaboration.The ...conceptual paper is based on a systematic literature review of 23 peer reviewed journal articles from Elsevier/Science Direct, Emerald, Springer and Scopus. Literature related to buyer-supplier context, tacit and explicit knowledge transfer, knowledge management for innovation purposes was reviewed and synthesised. Findings of the study indicate that organisational contextual factors, relationship strength, internal knowledge brokers, communication and transparency and link duration positively support tacit knowledge transfer and innovation. Complementarity of skills act as a barrier to operational knowledge transfer; however, it supports learning leading to supplier development and innovation in new product development. Conversely, knowledge stickiness is cited as a barrier to tacit knowledge transfer after reaching diminishing returns. The study synthesises the main facilitators of tacit knowledge transfer for managers/practitioners to consider in the buyer-supplier collaboration which can influence supplier innovation on projects such as new product development. The study has further proposed a model that will be tested quantitatively in the subsequent empirical study.
•Algebra matrix method integrates the structural factor and the state information of social networks.•Monte Carlo simulation experiments verify the effectiveness of the algebra matrix evaluation.•The ...evaluation deviations of diffusion threshold are shown best performance comparing with three popular mean field methods.•The weighted average strategy is proposed as applications.
Tacit knowledge is the knowledge existing in human brain which is not easy to be recorded or quantified, and often is learned in the face-to-face interactions. The tacit knowledge diffusion depends on the decision-making of tacit knowledge owners, and the expression of explicit knowledge carriers. However, the comprehensive influence of the tacit knowledge owners, explicit knowledge carriers and the relations of them were not attracted enough attention. In this paper, an algebra matrix method is used to integrate the multidimensional information of network structures and the nodes’ states. By the algebra matrix method, the diffusion threshold of the tacit knowledge is calculated, which is called algebra matrix evaluation. This evaluation method is proven to be effective by comparing with Monte Carlo simulations on three types of artificial networks and five reals. With applications of the algebra matrix evaluation, we construct a co-author network according the data of the academic papers from 1980 to 2017 on Aminer platform, and define states of tacit knowledge owners and the explicit knowledge carriers by the scholar’s career lengths and the paper’s cited quantities respectively. It is found that the thresholds of tacit knowledge diffusion are decreasing with the expansions of the scale of the largest connected components, whether tacit knowledge diffuses in the co-author networks or in the largest connected components. And with the evolution of cumulative co-author network, the diffusion thresholds of tacit knowledge in the largest connected component decrease in ladder-like with unequal steps. Furthermore, it is find ignoring the state factor will lead to the deviation in the evaluation of tacit knowledge diffusion thresholds, which is 16.33% in the largest connected components and 45.07% in the whole network.
PurposeManaging tacit knowledge effectively and efficiently is a huge challenge for organizations. Based on the social exchange and self-determination theories, this study aims to explore the role of ...social interactions in motivating employees' willingness to share tacit knowledge (WSTK).Design/methodology/approachThe study used a survey approach and collected data from 228 employees in service and manufacturing organizations.FindingsInteractional justice and respectful engagement are positively related to WSTK. The perceived cost of tacit knowledge sharing (CostTKS) partially mediates the relationship between interactional justice and WSTK. Respectful engagement moderates the negative relationship between interactional justice and the perceived CostTKS.Research limitations/implicationsThe study advances the understanding of the role of social interaction in facilitating employee WSTK by integrating the direct and intermediate relationships involving the effect of supervisor's interactional justice and peers' respectful engagement and employee perceived CostTKS on WSTK.Practical implicationsThe findings have important practical implications for organizations as these suggest how organizations can help tacit knowledge holders experience less negative and more supportive behaviors when they engage in voluntary TKS.Originality/valueThis study examines the effect of both vertical and horizontal work-related interactions on perceived CostTKS and sequentially on WSTK, thereby extending existing literature.
The main purpose of this research is to reflect on the role of emotion on learning processes, specifically on reasoning, learning, and improving our ethics behavior. We consider ethics as knowledge ...and ethics behavior as a practice supported on this knowledge. We use a narrative approach and present some stories that intend to be metaphors helping situate and clarify the context of concepts addressed. We conclude that we need to count on emotion in our learning strategies and that extends to how and why students learn. We need to play with emotion if we want to touch student's mind sets, student's core beliefs, and strengthen student's commitment. To effectively learn and develop ethical behaviors we need to identify situations, we need to care on motivation and experimentation, in order to rationalize and internalize knowledge. Above all, we need to invest in our emotions
Tacit knowledge sharing influences the performance of IT R&D teams. However, information regarding the mechanism of tacit knowledge sharing is limited. Accordingly, we develop a nonlinear dynamic ...model to explore the influence of structural changes on tacit knowledge sharing behavior in an IT R&D team, particularly in response to gradual changes in payoff structures. The following results were observed：(1) Certain situations and a traditional correlation analysis confirmed that the current contradictions in the influence of reward systems on knowledge sharing behavior are unified. (2) Under special conditions, the influences of several critical factors (e.g., reciprocity, penalty of social reputation, and supervising mechanism) lose efficacy. As an alternative, managers can only enhance the reward system or reduce sharing cost. The effectiveness of knowledge sharing substantially improves only once it reaches certain critical thresholds. (3) During a catastrophe, a team’s behavior may become immune to the deterioration of payoff structures. However, sudden jumps (i.e., from sharing to hiding knowledge) may occur when another threshold is reached. In summary, once team members experience a sudden jump, retrieving the previous cooperative status becomes difficult.
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