| Summary: | 碩士 === 義守大學 === 管理科學研究所 === 91 === As knowledge is considered a key factor in corporate competitiveness, knowledge sharing plays a critical role in an organization’s knowledge management. To capture the essence of the construct of knowledge sharing, four theoretical perspectives (i.e., learning, exchange, knowledge flow, and communication) were taken to dichotomize the construct as sharing willingness and sharing capability. This study first examined how structural mechanisms (i.e., incentives and information systems) and relational mechanisms (i.e., informal interaction and trust) might influence knowledge sharing.
Meanwhile, due to the shortening of product life cycle, new product development is indispensable in sustaining corporate growth and success. Naturally, new product development to a great extent reflects the process of knowledge sharing. Therefore, this study also investigated the impacts of knowledge sharing on the performance of new product development. In consistent with the essence of knowledge sharing, the performance was operationalized in three dimensions: time needed to complete the project, product innovativeness, and market performance. Together, the above analyses looked at the potential mediating role of knowledge sharing between intra-organizational mechanisms and new product development performance.
The top 1000 manufacturers in 2002 as ranked by the Commonwealth Monthly were sampled. A questionnaire survey yielded 184 valid responses. Multivariate analyses indicated that: (1) both structural and relational mechanisms had impacts on knowledge sharing, the impact from the latter was particularly significant; (2) knowledge sharing willingness did not influence new product development performance, whereas sharing capability did; and (3) overall, the mediating effect of sharing willingness between relational mechanisms and new product development performance was supported.
Keywords: knowledge sharing willingness, knowledge sharing capability, new product development performance
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