Knowledge sharing direction and innovation performance in organizations Do absorptive capacity and individual creativity matter?

• Published in: European journal of innovation management Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 371 - 394
• Main Authors: Zhao, Shuliang, Jiang, Yanhong, Peng, Xiaobao, Hong, Jin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Group Publishing Limited 18.05.2021
• Subjects: Absorptive capacity; Creativity; Employees; Innovations; Knowledge acquisition; Knowledge bases (artificial intelligence); Knowledge management; Knowledge sharing; Learning; Learning theory; Organizational learning; Organizations; Variables
• ISSN: 1460-1060; 1758-7115
• DOI: 10.1108/EJIM-09-2019-0244

PurposeBecause the mechanism of how knowledge sharing affects organizational innovation is still unclear, the study focuses on the relationship between knowledge sharing and organizational innovation performance, with a focus on mediating role of absorptive capacity and individual creativity.Design/methodology/approachOn the basis of the knowledge base view and organizational learning theory, the study propose a model to verify the impact of inbound and outbound knowledge sharing on organizational innovation performance based on previous research. It also analyzed how these effects were mediated by individual creativity and absorptive capacity. The study collected 166 samples to verify the theoretical model.FindingsResults corroborate that inbound knowledge sharing cannot directly promote organizational innovation performance, and absorptive capacity has a full mediation effect between inbound knowledge sharing and organizational innovation performance. Knowledge outbound sharing, individual creativity and absorptive capacity can improve innovation performance. In addition, absorptive capacity and individual creativity have direct and significant impacts on organizational innovation performance. Moreover, absorptive capacity plays a partial mediate role between individual creativity and innovation performance. Finally, this study discusses the policy implications of the study and describes possible future research directions.Originality/valueThe paper creatively divides knowledge sharing into inbound knowledge sharing and outbound knowledge sharing and verifies that knowledge sharing does not directly affect organizational innovation performance. The mediating role of absorptive capacity and individual creativity was analysis.