Why do academicians share knowledge? A study of higher education institutions in India.

Abstract

Indian higher education institutions are diverse in nature; there are institutions with good infrastructure and resources as well as institutes that have little in terms of resources and infrastructure. Keeping in mind the relevance of knowledge sharing in academic institutions, the researchers in the present study have tried to find factors determining the knowledge sharing behavior of the academicians of different institutes in India. The researchers in the present work have expanded on extant research by demarcating factors that affect the knowledge sharing behavior of academicians. A structured questionnaire was shared through e-mail and social media groups, and a snowball approach was used to reach out to the maximum number of respondents. The present study offers an integrated and extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) theoretical model, augmenting it with constructs such as motivation and the opportunity to share knowledge adapted from related studies. The findings of this research provide theoretical as well as practical suggestions in determining and explaining the knowledge sharing behavior of academicians. The researchers in the present study have tried to present a shorter and more reliable scale that can be used to assess the behavioral intentions of academicians to share knowledge.