Promoting Knowledge Sharing Amongst Academics: A Case Study from Vietnam

Abstract

This study aims to examine the influences of environmental and personal factors on knowledge-sharing behaviour (KSB) of academics and whether more influence leads to superior innovative work behaviour (IWB) at the tertiary level in Vietnam. A questionnaire survey was conducted as part of the study, including 320 academic staff at Hanoi University, one of the leading public universities in Vietnam. This study applies the structural equation modelling (SEM) to investigate the research model based on social cognitive theory (SCT). The results show that two environmental factors (subjective norms and trust) and two personal factors (knowledge self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others) significantly influence KSB. The results also indicate that employee willingness to share knowledge enables the organisation to promote innovative work behaviour. The study context was limited to only one Vietnamese university. It appears that the part of a bigger picture of knowledge sharing (KS) in Vietnamese universities is likely to be lost. However, given the previous studies on knowledge sharing in both developed and developing countries, it could be expected that the results of this study can be taken forward by university leaderships, academic staff and researchers in other contexts as well. A clear understanding of the critical factors that influence KSB towards promoting innovative work behaviour may help university leaders to develop suitable and evolving strategies to address the challenges of knowledge sharing. This study contributes to the growing literature on the relationships among environmental and personal factors and KSB towards promoting innovative work behaviour.