Abstract:
The paradox of knowledge sharing and protecting in Collaborative Innovation (CI)
has stimulated growing interest from management researchers to pursue best
practices. Firms engage in CI to access knowledge from partners, though one of the
inherent challenges is the loss of knowledge from the employing firm to its partners.
Research in the CI literature has predominantly been done on the firm level,
especially investigating knowledge sharing and protection.
In this thesis, the individual was chosen as the unit of analysis as the employee
is the ultimate decision-maker about what knowledge to share with the collaborative
partner. Recognising that managing individual employees’ knowledge-sharing
behaviour (KSB) could help firms better protect their knowledge, the specific research
objective was to answer the question: 'how is an individuals' KSB best managed in
CI?’
The literature discussing KSB and CI was examined and an overarching model
was developed, hypothesising that perceived top management support (TMS) and
knowledge protection mechanisms (KPMs) moderate the relationship between
affective commitment and KSB to both the employing and the project organisations.
Three quantitative studies were designed to test the model: Study 1, a
multilevel study where data were collected from 42 NZ firms; Study 2, a crosssectional
study with 273 scientists and engineers sourced from the Turk-Prime
database; and Study 3, a scenario-based experiment where 425 participants were
sourced from the M-Turk database.
Though the results were mixed, it was apparent that perceived TMS plays a
crucial role in employees’ KSB internally, similar to other studies. In two studies,
perceived TMS moderated the relationship between affective commitment to the
employing firm and employees’ KSB with members of the employing firm, but only
when perceived TMS was high. Thus, top managers need to ensure they are highly
supportive and provide resources to enable their employees to share their knowledge
internally. Perceived TMS did not moderate the affective commitment-KSB
relationship with the project organisation in two of the three studies. However,
perceived TMS, KPMs, and affective commitment to the project organisation had a
direct link to KSB with the project organisation.
The thesis also included an exploratory study into the moderating effects of
each knowledge protection mechanisms. The results showed that when the Labour
Legislation mechanism is isolated, both Labour Legislation and perceived TMS had a
significant moderating effect on the relationship between affective commitment to the
project organisation and KSB with project organisation. Labour Legislation includes
employees’ contracts where legal obligations are stipulated. The importance of
Labour Legislation is especially interesting since New Zealand managers rated this as
the least useful mechanism to protect their innovations.
This thesis extends the current literature on KSB in CI and provides new
insights into how affective commitment, perceived TMS, and KPMs affect
individuals’ KSB with the collaborative partner. Managers should also realise their
crucial role in influencing employees’ KSB by providing support and resources to
share knowledge. They should also pay close attention to their employees’ contracts
since these significantly moderate employees’ KSB.