Mapping interorganizational knowledge sharing mechanisms in projects from the socio-technical perspective

Abstract

Interorganizational knowledge sharing (IKS) has become an important strategy for project organizations to drive high performance in interorganizational projects. Distinct IKS mechanisms (i.e., the management activities facilitating IKS among organizations) are proposed in the existing literature. However, the matching between knowledge categorization and IKS mechanisms are less explored. From the socio-technical perspective, this study employed grounded theory to identify and match different types of knowledge and IKS mechanisms. Qualitative data collected from primary and secondary sources were integrated to triangulate the research findings. Four categories of knowledge were identified based on their characteristics, including knowledge tacitness and heterogeneity. Then, a four-dimension framework of IKS mechanisms (i.e., event, social, technical, and document mechanisms) was developed to form matching configurations to facilitate IKS in different scenarios. This framework deepens our understanding of how to form strategies to apply proper IKS mechanisms to facilitate the sharing of different types of knowledge from the socio-technical perspective.