An Empirical Study Of Motivation, Perceived Value Of Knowledge And Knowledge Sharing

In the era of knowledge economy, knowledge has become the source of sustainable competitive advantage of organizations (Drucker,2001). Knowledge sharing among employees is the most important aspect of knowledge management. It is the premise and basis to realize the knowledge of collection, transfer, integration and creation. Only through knowledge sharing among employees, the individual-level knowledge can convert into organizational-level knowledge. Therefore, to study the factors affecting individual knowledge sharing in the organization is very important.However, knowledge sharing among employees can not realize automatically. Motivation mechanism must be used to facilitate internal knowledge sharing. Domestic and foreign scholars have done a lot of research on the impact of motivation for knowledge sharing. Motivation is not a single concept, researches has shown that people may be motivated due to they value an activity itself, may also be due to external coercion. Accordingly, motivation is divided into intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Under the effect of exogenous incentives, individual is motivated by external incentives and rewards (organizational incentive, reciprocity, etc.), while, under the intrinsic motivation, individual is motivated because the activity itself brings the feeling of competence and pleasure (self-efficacy, enjoyment in helping others, etc.). So what kind of impact does it play on individual knowledge sharing intension? It is the focus of this study.When individuals perceive their knowledge within the organization as a valuable commodity, the individual will decide content, timing and object in knowledge sharing decision-making (Jones P, Jardan J,1996). Apparently, the perceived value of knowledge will affect the individual knowledge sharing.What kind of impact does perceived value of knowledge plays on individual knowledge sharing intentions? Unfortunately, there are conflict results of existing researches. This study try to re-understand the position and the function of perceived value of knowledge, guess it plays a moderating role in the relationship between motivation and knowledge sharing intension.Through empirical research of data from655employees of26companies in four cities in Yangtze River Delta, we draw the following conclusions:Extrinsic motivation (organizational incentive and reciprocity) has a positive impact on individual knowledge sharing intension; Intrinsic motivation (self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others) has a negative impact on individual knowledge sharing intension; the perceived value of knowledge plays a negative moderating role in the relationship between organizational incentive and knowledge sharing intension; and plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between self-efficacy and knowledge sharing intension.