Somebody is hiding something: Disentangling interpersonal level drivers and consequences of knowledge hiding in international entrepreneurial firms

Abstract

This research is set to address the scant research on the relationship between the key drivers and consequences of knowledge hiding within international entrepreneurial organisations at the interpersonal level. It further aims to compare knowledge hiding behaviour among international entrepreneurs in two diverse contexts of emerging countries versus advanced economies. Therefore, this research employs a total number of ten international entrepreneurs in Iran and Italy and takes advantage of the Multi-Criterion Decision-Making (MCDM) approach. In this regard, DEcision-MAking Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method is applied to disentangle the cause-effect relationship between knowledge hiding components and present conceptual frameworks for the interrelationship of knowledge hiding factors in each context. Furthermore, in order to assess the importance and ranking of factors in Italy and Iran Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) is performed. As such, this research provides different contributions to the knowledge hiding literature as well as key implications for practitioners.