Perceived value of knowledge: the potential informer's perception

Achieving value from knowledge has been illusive to the organization despite recent attempts to capitalize on it. An individual's willingness to share his or her knowledge is an essential factor in the organization benefiting from the knowledge it collectively possesses. Yet little is understood regarding what knowledge people are willing to share. This paper describes the development of a new construct, perceived value of knowledge (PVK). PVK's relationship with intentions to share knowledge is illustrated (both qualitatively and quantitatively). The qualitative study illustrates that it may influence the enablers and the barriers to knowledge sharing. The quantitative study found that PVK is positively related to intentions to share knowledge, while Uniqueness of Knowledge (a related but separate construct) is negatively related to intentions to share knowledge. Implications of perceived value of knowledge is discussed.

[1]  P. Ekeh,et al.  Social Exchange Theory: The Two Traditions. , 1975 .

[2]  O. Zinser,et al.  Affluence of the Recipient, Value of Donations, and Sharing Behavior in Preschool Children. , 1975, The Journal of psychology.

[3]  Herman Turk,et al.  Social Exchange Theory: The Two Traditions. , 1976 .

[4]  Gilbert A. Churchill.  A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs , 1979 .

[5]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[6]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using Multivariate Statistics , 1983 .

[7]  H. A. Mcallister,et al.  Sharing behavior: effect of denomination value and number , 1984 .

[8]  R. Cialdini.  Influence: Science and Practice , 1984 .

[9]  J. Rychlak,et al.  Incentive Value: The Overlooked Dimension in Childhood Sharing , 1985 .

[10]  V. Zeithaml.  Consumer Perceptions of Price, Quality, and Value: A Means-End Model and Synthesis of Evidence: , 1988 .

[11]  David W. Gerbing,et al.  An Updated Paradigm for Scale Development Incorporating Unidimensionality and Its Assessment , 1988 .

[12]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Validating Instruments in MIS Research , 1989, MIS Q..

[13]  K. Lehrer.  Theory Of Knowledge , 1990 .

[14]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  Development of an Instrument to Measure the Perceptions of Adopting an Information Technology Innovation , 1991, Inf. Syst. Res..

[15]  Lee Sproull,et al.  What's Mine Is Ours, or Is It? A Study of Attitudes about Information Sharing , 1994, Inf. Syst. Res..

[16]  Marsha L. Richins.  Valuing Things: The Public and Private Meanings of Possessions , 1994 .

[17]  Wynne W. Chin.  The partial least squares approach for structural equation modeling. , 1998 .

[18]  R. Czaja.  Questionnaire Pretesting Comes of Age , 1998 .

[19]  Syed Shariq,et al.  How does knowledge transform as it is transferred? Speculations on the possibility of a cognitive theory of knowledgescapes , 1999, J. Knowl. Manag..

[20]  Wynne W. Chin,et al.  Structural equation modeling analysis with small samples using partial least squares , 1999 .

[21]  David P. Lepak,et al.  The Human Resource Architecture: Toward a Theory of Human Capital Allocation and Development , 1999 .

[22]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Structural Equation Modeling and Regression: Guidelines for Research Practice , 2000, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[23]  Anil K. Gupta,et al.  Knowledge flows within multinational corporations , 2000 .

[24]  Thomas H. Davenport,et al.  Book review:Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak. Harvard Business School Press, 1998. $29.95US. ISBN 0‐87584‐655‐6 , 1998 .

[25]  Melvin R. Crask,et al.  Value Assessment: The Antecedent of Customer Satisfaction , 2000 .

[26]  Gabriel Szulanski,et al.  When Credible Sources Share Complex Knowledge , 2000 .

[27]  Richard Harris,et al.  The knowledge‐based economy: intellectual origins and new economic perspectives , 2001 .

[28]  J. L. Pierce,et al.  Toward a Theory of Psychological Ownership in Organizations , 2001 .

[29]  Mie Augier,et al.  Understanding context: its emergence, transformation and role in tacit knowledge sharing , 2001, J. Knowl. Manag..

[30]  H. Winklhofer,et al.  Index Construction with Formative Indicators: An Alternative to Scale Development , 2001 .

[31]  William M. K. Trochim,et al.  Research methods knowledge base , 2001 .

[32]  David P. Lepak,et al.  Examining the Human Resource Architecture: The Relationships Among Human Capital, Employment, and Human Resource Configurations , 2002 .

[33]  Peter R. Monge,et al.  Motivations to Resolve Communication Dilemmas in Database-Mediated Collaboration , 2002, Commun. Res..

[34]  Mark E. Nissen,et al.  An Extended Model of Knowledge-Flow Dynamics , 2002, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[35]  Personal, professional, and service company commitments in service relationships , 2003 .

[36]  E. Kelloway,et al.  Predictors of employees’ perceptions of knowledge sharing cultures , 2003 .

[37]  Margaret A. Neale,et al.  Who's Really Sharing? Effects of Social and Expert Status on Knowledge Exchange Within Groups , 2003, Manag. Sci..

[38]  PERCEIVED RISK AS A DETERMINANT OF PERCEIVED VALUE , 2004 .

[39]  Clyde W. Holsapple,et al.  Knowledge and Its Attributes , 2004 .

[40]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using multivariate statistics, 5th ed. , 2007 .