Att lyfta blicken från skärmen - En multipel fallstudie om de upplevda för- och nackdelarna av fysisk och elektronisk kunskapsdelning

Sammanfattning: Knowledge sharing is becoming an increasingly important aspect for organizations' ability to compete, especially for firms defined as knowledge intensive. This is due to the increased potential value creation associated with managing and utilizing knowledge for this category of firms. Currently, the management literature has spent little effort on distinguishing knowledge sharing through electronic means from knowledge sharing in a face-to-face context. Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine and identify the perceived costs and benefits, from a knowledge worker's perspective, from sharing knowledge in an electronic context compared to sharing knowledge in a face-to-face context. The importance of this study stems from being able to provide insights into how to enhance knowledge sharing in organizations. The study is designed as a multiple case study consisting of respondents from two knowledge intensive firms operating in two knowledge intensive industries, namely the advertising industry and the telecommunications industry. These two firms are, due to anonymity, referred to as Mediebyrån and Telekombolaget. The study utilizes Theory of Reasoned Action and Social Exchange Theory to analyze the perceived benefits and costs derived from knowledge sharing in the two contexts in order to identify what factors influence knowledge workers' behavioral intentions of sharing knowledge. The study's empirical findings suggest that knowledge workers have two separate ways of constructing their outcomes evaluation, which greatly affects their knowledge sharing intentions in the two contexts. Furthermore, the study identifies five factors that influence knowledge workers' behavioral intentions of sharing knowledge in the two contexts. Two factors, information inflation and reputation, influence behavioral intentions in the electronic context and two additional factors, potency and personality, affect behavioral intentions of sharing knowledge in the face-to-face context. In addition, the fifth factor, relationship, appears to influence intentions in both contexts, but in different ways.