Enhancing knowledge sharing and research collaboration among academics: the role of knowledge management

Although knowledge sharing (KS) has been acknowledged as important, universities face issues that may hinder active sharing among its faculty members such as the absence of trust among its members or insufficient incentives rewarded to those who deserved it. The aim of this research is to focus on the impact of knowledge management (KM) factors in encouraging KS among academics. As such, this study sheds insights into existing literature through the inspection of the KM factors in one single KM-KS-Collaboration research model that provides an influential theoretical contribution for research in related fields because it suggests that faculty members’ KS is positively related to openness in communication and face-to-face interactive communication. A self-administered questionnaire using a quota-sampling method with 421 usable responses from 94 professors, 154 associate professors, and 173 senior lecturers were gathered. Partial least squares was employed for a series of data analyses: measurement and structural models assessment. From the analysis, all constructs have composite reliability values more than 0.7 and demonstrate adequate convergent and discriminant validity by having average variance extracted value greater than 0.50. The findings revealed that members’ KS is influenced by trust, organizational rewards, organizational culture, KM system quality, openness in communication and face-to-face interactive communication whereas research collaboration is strongly influenced by KS. This study has reinforced the understanding of KM factors, KS and research collaboration within the context of academic staff in research universities.