Untangling knowledge creation and knowledge integration in enterprise wikis

Roman Beck, Arun Rai, Kai Fischbach, Mark Keil

    Research output: Journal Article or Conference Article in JournalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    A central challenge organizations face is how to build, store, and maintain knowledge over time. Enterprise wikis are community-based knowledge systems situated in an organizational context. These systems have the potential to play an important role in managing knowledge within organizations, but the motivating factors that drive individuals to contribute their knowledge to these systems is not very well understood. We theorize that enterprise wiki initiatives require two separate and distinct types of knowledge-sharing behaviors to succeed: knowledge creation (KC) and knowledge integration (KI). We examine a Wiki initiative at a major German bank to untangle the motivating factors behind KC and KI. Our results suggest KC and KI are indeed two distinct behaviors, reconcile inconsistent findings from past studies on the role of motivational factors for knowledge sharing to establish shared electronic knowledge resources in organizations, and identify factors that can be leveraged to tilt behaviors in favor of KC or KI.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalJournal of Business Economics
    Volume85
    Issue number4
    Pages (from-to)389-420
    ISSN0044-2372
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2015

    Keywords

    • knowledge management
    • knowledge creation
    • motivation
    • costs
    • rewards
    • knowledge integration
    • enterprise wiki

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Untangling knowledge creation and knowledge integration in enterprise wikis'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this