Factors Impacting Cross-Cultural Knowledge Sharing Through Online Systems in Organisational Settings

Abstract

The work reported in this paper has identified a research gap regarding the specific area of cross-cultural knowledge sharing through online systems in organisational settings, i.e. what are the factors impacting organisational members' online knowledge sharing behaviour in cross-cultural contexts? A survey of the relevant literature has recognised three main categories of potentially significant factors: organisational issues, national culture and computer-mediated communication. Although scholarly efforts have been taken in each of the three single areas, no previous study has integrated all three categories systematically. A review of the existing studies in all three areas shows that each areas is limited in some way, for understanding how and why people with different national cultural values, share or do not share knowledge through online systems within the same organisation. This paper explains the importance of identifying and addressing the research gaps, as well as suggests ways in which scholars can make use of new research methods that provide better explanations of why certain knowledge sharing behaviours exist.