The role of social capital and national culture in explaining knowledge sharing behavior in a MNC

In the past years knowledge sharing has become a topic of interest for many corporations. In order to seek sustainable competitive advantage companies have started to focus on the capabilities residing inside the organization. In order to benefit from skills and know-how available, the knowledge of the employees must be shared. However, sharing tacit knowledge is not a straightforward process. It is influenced by the motivation of the knowledge source and recipient to engage in the process. This idea is at the core of the research, as it focuses on the factors that influence knowledge sharing behavior within a MNC. The main interest of the research is to examine how social capital and national culture impact the detected behavior. The research is based on a case company, which operates in multiple countries. The research compares the factors affecting behavior cross-nationally, with the focus on Finland, Norway and Russia. The empirical part of the study was conducted as a qualitative research, where data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Four interviews were conducted face-to-face, eight by utilizing online meetings and one via phone. Five of the interviewees were from Finland and four people participated from both Norway and Russia. It was found that the incentives to share knowledge were similar group wide, while the impediments of sharing had variation. In order to explain the findings, the dimensions of social capital and national culture were utilized. It was found that all dimensions of social capital impact the behavior in interpersonal relationships. Especially trust and strong ties were seen to have a vast impact on the process. Furthermore, it was detected that national culture impacts the knowledge sharing behavior of individuals especially trough the dimensions of individualism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format