Systematic literature review for the development of a conceptual model on the relationship between knowledge sharing, information technology infrastructure and innovative capability

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to carry out a systematic literature review for the development of a conceptual model that deals with the relationship between knowledge sharing, Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, and innovative capability. The examination and synthesis of the theoretical and the empirical articles show that there are direct relations between the three constructs, observing that relations of interaction also represent forms of significant influences on the capacity of the firms to innovate. The literature review conducted in this study opened the possibility to develop a theoretical model that stimulates future research involving effects of interaction between variables associated with innovation, knowledge and IT. Researchers interested in evaluating simultaneous, direct and interaction effects on innovative capability can use the theoretical model developed as the basis for conducting empirical tests. Organisational managers can incorporate the findings of interaction effects into their knowledge management, innovation and IT models. The results show that the literature about knowledge sharing can consider direct impacts and interaction effects, considering their combination with IT infrastructure to enhance companies’ ability to innovate. These findings suggest that companies’ innovative potential can be incremented by efforts to integrate knowledge sharing processes with IT infrastructure components.