Knowledge sharing and innovation: A systematic review

• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Author: Sergio Cuellar,Delio Ignacio Castaneda
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.1637
• Date: 01 July 2020

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Knowledge sharing and innovation: A systematic review

Delio Ignacio Castaneda

1

| Sergio Cuellar

2

1

Business Department, Pontificia Universidad

Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia

2

Research Department, Pontificia Universidad

Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia

Correspondence

Delio Ignacio Castaneda, Business Department

Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá,

Colombia.

Email: delio.castaneda@javeriana.edu.co

The purpose of this article is to investigate the ways in which innovation and knowl-

edge sharing have been studied together in the academic literature. The method

employed in this study was a systematic review that covered publications on knowl-

edge sharing and innovation from 1973, when the first article relating the two topics

was published, to 2017. The survey was based on 7,991 articles from the Scopus and

ISI Web of Science databases using VantagePoint 11.0 software. Four periods were

identified in the relationship between innovation and knowledge sharing: embryonic,

emergent, growth young, and growth highest. The relationship between knowledge

sharing and innovation continues to grow based on the number of papers published

on the topic by year. This is the first systematic review of the relationship between

knowledge sharing and innovation.

1|INTRODUCTION

Innovation is among the most important organizational capacities to

obtain and maintain competitive advantage. It is highly dependent on

the exchange of knowledge among workers. Knowledge contributes

to a sustained competitive advantage through its application to the

design of new products or services, or to their improvement

(Ceylan, 2013).

Innovation is facil itated by modern infr astructure, techno logy,

and economic resources, but mainly through knowledge sharing

among workers. Accor ding to Cardinal, Alle sandri, and

Turner (2001) innova tion integrates tech nical, physical, a nd

knowledge-related components into product development. The

understanding of the process of innovation can be expressed in

three ways: the actor s involved, the types of activities contr ibuting

to innovation, and the different modes of innovation (Diercks,

Larsen, & Steward, 2019).

The purpose of this article was to investigate ways in

which innovation and knowledge sharing have been studied

together in the academic literature. The authors identified

periods of the relationship between the fields, the most rele-

vant topics in each period, and the number of published pa pers

yearly.

2|THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 |Knowledge sharing

Serenko and Bontis (2016) claimed that knowledge sharing today is

considered one of the most important topics of research in manage-

ment. Helmstadter (2003) defined knowledge sharing as interactions

between human actors where the raw material is knowledge. Knowl-

edge sharing is the exchange of experience, skills, and tacit and

explicit knowledge among employees (Hogel, Partboteeah, &

Munson, 2003). Knowledge sharing is also the ability to transfer

framed experiences, information, and expert insights into practices

(Wiewiora, Trigunarsyah, Murphy, & Coffey, 2013). In a broad per-

spective, knowledge sharing is defined as the means by which organi-

zations have access to their own and other organizations' knowledge

(Cummings, 2003). Gibbert and Krause (2002) defined knowledge

sharing as the desire of a collaborator in an organization to give others

the knowledge that he or she has created or acquired. For Ipe and

Wagner (2008), sharing knowledge is the act of making knowledge

available to others. In a wider sense, knowledge sharing is the process

of transference of experience and organizational knowledge to busi-

ness processes through communication channels between individuals

(Oyemomi, Neaga, & Alkhuraiji, 2016).

Received: 25 July 2019 Accepted: 16 April 2020

DOI: 10.1002/kpm.1637

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reprodu ction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2020 The Authors. Knowledge and Process Management published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Knowl Process Manag. 2020;27:159–173. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/kpm 159