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Faculty of Business Management, National Economics University
Abstract: This paper examines factors influencing knowledge sharing among undergraduate students in Hanoi,
Vietnam. A quantitative survey is conducted with the sample size of 563 observations. Results of the study
revealed that there are evidences to the relationship between factors including enjoy in helping others, perceived
benefits, knowledge self-efficacy, faculty’s support, fairness, creativity, and technology and knowledge sharing
among students in Hanoi, Vietnam. Based on analysis of the data, implications are given to higher education
institutions and students in order to stimulate the knowledge sharing process.
Index terms: factors influence knowledge sharing, knowledge, knowledge management, knowledge sharing,
students.
1
making, learning and teaching (Beckman, 1997). additional feedback and improves their further
Davenport & Prusak (1998) believed most people have research initiatives.
an intuitive sense that knowledge is broader, deeper,
and richer than data or information. According to the There are number of knowledge sharing tools. The
two authors, knowledge is a fluid mix of framed popular ones include story telling, search engines,
experience, values, contextual information, and expert online community, forum, interview, video discussion,
insight that provides a framework for evaluating and observation, focus group, social network, etc. (Do,
incorporating new experiences and information. 2014). The effectiveness of a knowledge sharing
Knowledge derives from information as information activities in organization has the potential of
derives from data. Knowledge is a completed approach improving customer services, bringing new product to
to create new procedure and information. market and reducing cost of business operations (Saufi
and Tasmin, 2010). Knowledge sharing can raise the
There are several definitions of knowledge sustainable competitiveness of an organization
management. Knowledge management can be defined (Davenport and Prusak, 2000; Foss and Pedersen,
as the process of adapting existing knowledge in order 2000). Regarding to learning environment, knowledge
to solve current business challenges and create new sharing enable far more effective learning and the
solutions by studying patterns in existing knowledge facilitation of learning (Arsenijević et al., 2011). The
(McAdam, 2000). Knowledge Management can be process of knowledge sharing is not only a term of
considered activities and process geared towards participation and learning interaction of students, but
creation and utilization of knowledge in an can also be viewed as a learning strategy that can help
organization (Rosenthal-Sabroux & Grundstein, students to collaborate with teachers and other students
2008). Holsapple (2005) believed knowledge in acquiring new knowledge and solve the problem
management is not just about processes, but is greatly (Dwiyanti, 2017).
hinged on human activities. It is based on human
activities, processes, social interactions, experiences III. RESEARCH MODEL AND HYPOTHESIS
and cognitive interpretation of information.
Knowledge sharing
Knowledge management may simply be defined as
doing what is needed to get the most out of knowledge As said previously, in knowledge sharing process,
resource. Knowledge management is viewed as an there are two knowledge flows including knowledge
increasingly important discipline that promotes the transferring and receiving or collecting (Van den
creation, sharing, and leveraging of the corporation’s Hooff and de Ridder, 2004) and thus, knowledge and
knowledge (Becerra- Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2010). senders and receivers exist. Knowledge transfer means
Davenport and Prusak (1998) believed that knowledge to convey and to diffuse knowledge among different
management is the process of collecting, creating, organizations or within one organization. Regular
storing and using knowledge. It is systematic approach meetings, training, and personal contact are ways to
to identify, manage and share the information assets convey knowledge (Thomas, 2009). Given the fact
including database, documents, policies, procedures that, the two processes take place at the same time, the
and professional knowledge, which (Sunasee và knowledge sharing process is illustrated by the two
Sewry, 2002). Knowledge management process can be variables namely knowledge transferring (KT) and
broken down into several processes including collecting (KC).
knowledge creation, knowledge storing, knowledge
sharing, and knowledge applying. Among them, Enjoyment in helping others (V1.Enjoyment)
knowledge sharing plays an important roles as the According to self- deterministic theory, internal
process let knowledge spread out for individuals, motivation of an individual is from inside and is not
groups or organizations to acquire and using it. relative to outside factors (Deci and Ryan, 2008).
Individual’s inner motivation stimulates knowledge
Knowledge sharing is defined as the process of sharing with others (Osteroh & Frey, 2000).
exchanging knowledge like skills, experience, and Individuals have motivation of sharing knowledge as
understanding among researchers, policymakers, and they enjoy in helping others (Wasko& Faraj, 2000).
service providers (Tsui, 2006). It is a set of behaviors Considering these views, it was hypothesized that:
that involve the exchange of information or assistance H1a: Enjoyment in helping others have a positive
to other (Connelly & Kelloway, 2003). In knowledge relationship with knowledge transferring;
sharing process, there are knowledge senders and H1b: Enjoyment in helping others have a positive
receivers. The centre of knowledge sharing, thus, relationship with knowledge collecting;
consists of two coincide processes of knowledge
transferring and knowledge collecting. Regarding to Perceived benefits (V2.Benefits)
learning environment, Oosterlinck (2004) found that
knowledge sharing assists students to receive Gutman (1982) believed that the perceived customer
value of an offering is the combination of both the
benefits that a customer seeks, expects or experiences responsibility, share with others (Kim and Lee, 2006)
and the unexpected consequences that come with the and thus, knowledge sharing is strengthened. In
benefits. The perceived value, thus, is benefit that a addition, creativity can also encourage new ideas,
person receives when carrying out an activity. enhance learning. Individuals, in such way, tend to
Researchers believed that perceived benefits influence invigorate knowledge sharing. Thus, the following
knowledge sharing behavior. It is one of important hypotheses were proposed:
factors for a person in making a decision of sharing H5a: Fairness has a positive relationship with
knowledge as he or she expect to receive benefit from knowledge transferring;
others who share something with him or her in the H5b: Fairness has a positive relationship with
future. Expecting that the knowledge receiver will help knowledge collecting;
or will not harm the knowledge donator is the H6a: Creativity have a positive relationship with
motivation of knowledge donation. (Moghavvemi et knowledge transferring;
al., 2018). When the knowledge sharing behavior is H6b: Creativity have a positive relationship with
stimulated from both knowledge donator and receiver, knowledge collecting;
people who expect reciprocal benefit tend to
strengthen sharing behavior and feel more confident in Technology (V7.Technology)
working place (Moghavvemi et al., 2018). Thus, the Connectivity is the ability for members of a social
second hypothesis is that: system to contact each other directly (Van den Hooff,
H2a: Perceived benefit has a positive relationship with Elving, Meeuwsen, & Dumoulin, 2003). Technology
knowledge transferring; which build up connectivity among people can act as
H2b: Perceived benefit has a positive relationship with stimulating factor for knowledge sharing in learning
knowledge collecting; environment. The impact of availability and usability
of technology on knowledge sharing is affirmed by
Knowledge self- efficacy (V3.S-efficacy) Han and Anantatmula (2007). We have hypothesis as
Knowledge self- efficacy is ability to apply knowledge follows:
in solving problems in working place (Asllani, 2003). H7a: Technology have a positive relationship with
Bandura (1997) suggested that efficacy influence knowledge transferring;
behavior so people can strengthen efficacy in order to H7b: Technology have a positive relationship with
sharing knowledge if their cooperation with other is knowledge collecting;
built up. The third hypothesis is states as following.
Together with the two above factors, knowledge self-
efficacy depends on individual. III. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
H3a: Knowledge self- efficacy have a positive
relationship with knowledge transferring; There were 615 samples that were selected for data
H3b: Knowledge self- efficacy have a positive analysis among students in Hanoi. From them, 58 of
relationship with knowledge collecting; the 615 samples were excluded because of the
incomplete and unsatisfied responses. Accordingly,
Faculty’s support (V4.FSupport) 563 samples were selected for the final data analysis.
In learning environment, discussion brings knowledge SPSS 20 is used for analysis.
sharing. The way instructors conduct classes may also
influence how the students behave in terms of IV. FINDINGS
knowledge sharing behavior (Chen et al., 2007).
Therefore, the following hypotheses were proposed: Characteristics of the sample
H4a: Faculty’s support have a positive relationship Demographic characteristics of overall participants is
with knowledge transferring; shown in Table 1.
H4b: Faculty’s support have a positive relationship Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of respondents
with knowledge collecting; Characteristics Frequency Percentage (%)
Hypotheses Testing
This article has investigated the factors influence
The detailed hypotheses testing results are presented
knowledge sharing among undergraduate students in
in Table 3 and Table 4. Among the 14 hypotheses, 12
Hanoi, Vietnam. The evidences are not sufficient to
were supported. Results of regression analysis showed
reject the hypothesis that individual factors including
that there is evidence of the existence of positive
enjoyment in helping others, perceived benefits and
relationships between independent variables including
knowledge self- efficacy and environment factors
enjoyment in helping others, perceived benefits,
namely faculty support and fairness have positive
knowledge self-efficacy, faculty support and fairness
relationship with knowledge transferring and
with knowledge sharing. For the remaining
receiving. The evidences are sufficient to reject the
independents variables comprising creativity and
hypotheses that there are positive relationships
technology, hypotheses of the relationships between
between fairness and technology and knowledge
them with knowledge transferring are supported
transferring. However, there are insufficient evidences
whereas the relationships with knowledge receiving
to reject the hypotheses that fairness and technology
are rejected.
have positive relationships with knowledge receiving.
Table 3. Results of Regression Analysis on
The study has several limitations. The sample size is
knowledge transferring
Variables Beta t Sig. H Supported
limited to 563 respondents from 531,229 students in
Hanoi (Vietnam General Statistic Office, 2019).
V1.Enjoyment .407 11.602 .000 H1a Yes Future work could include a larger sample to increase
V2.Benefits .204 5.818 .000 H2a Yes the representativeness of the sample. Demographic
V3.S-efficacy .121 3.457 .001 H3a Yes factors should also be taken into account in order to
V4.FSupport .240 6.833 .000 H4a Yes
identify if there is any relationship between them and
V5.Fairness .183 5.219 .000 H5a Yes
V6.Creativity .040 1.132 .258 H6a No knowledge sharing. Future work should also include
V7.Technology .031 .884 .377 H7a No number of additional factors such as trust, fear, reward
and recognition system and knowledge sharing.
Table 4. Results of Regression Analysis on Despite of these limitations, the research has
knowledge receiving potentially important implications for the knowledge
Variables Beta t Sig. H Supported
sharing in learning environment.
V1.Enjoyment .263 7.451 .000 H1b Yes
V2.Benefits .226 6.392 .000 H2b Yes Since there is not sufficient evidence to reject the claim
V3.S-efficacy .285 8.054 .000 H3b Yes that there are positive relationships between
V4.FSupport .169 4.784 .000 H4b Yes enjoyment in helping others, perceived benefits, and
V5.Fairness .163 4.608 .000 H5b Yes
V6.Creativity .209 5.904 .000 H6b Yes knowledge self- efficacy and knowledge sharing, in
V7.Technology .083 2.351 .019 H7b Yes order to strengthen knowledge sharing, knowledge
sharing behavior should be loved and recognized.
The variance explained (R2) by the paths was Positive attitude of students toward knowledge sharing
examined and the results are presented in Table 5. The behavior will make knowledge donators feel happy
and continue to disseminate knowledge. Learning (2010), “Leader–Member Exchange and Affective
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