International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning, 2(2), 227–242
The Mediating Role of Knowledge
Sharing on Information Technology
and Innovation
Onwika Kaewchur
Kasetsart University, Thailand
Pornthep Anussornnitisarn
Kasetsart University, Thailand
Zbigniew Pastuszak
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Poland
This study aims to investigate the relationship between information technol-
ogy, knowledge sharing, and a firm’s innovation. Knowledge sharing as a medi-
ating effect is also simultaneously investigated with regard to the relationship
between information technology and a firm’s innovation. In this research, the
quantitative method was mainly employed. The data was collected with a sur-
vey. A total of 224 respondents from herbal manufacturing companies were
included in the research. The results presented in this paper demonstrate
that knowledge sharing and information technology can critically influence
the organization’s innovation and can play a vital role as a significant success
factor in this process.
Keywords: knowledge sharing; innovation; information technology; knowledge
management
Introduction
Knowledge is the basic competitive advantage of a firm. Knowledge can
be created, recognized, archived, accessed, and applied by people within a
company (Nonaka, 1995). This organizational knowledge usually flows and
is distributed within the firm. Moreover, multiple types of knowledge are
required in order to improve products or services of an organization (Lee,
2001).
In particular, organization knowledge can be created from past learning,
experience, and the acquisition of new information and knowledge by each
individual. As a result, sharing knowledge of individuals with others will in-
crease the ability to solve problems (Nonaka, Von Krogh & Voelpel, 2006)
and enhance the innovation capability of the firm (Lee, 2001; Sáenz, Aram-
buru, & Rivera, 2009). Moreover, the firm cannot survive without explicit or
tacit knowledge; both types of knowledge should be integrated and simulta-
neously performed. As Hiroshi Okuda, the chairman of Toyota, mentioned,
www.issbs.si/press/ISSN/2232-5697/2_227-242.pdf
228 Onwika Kaewchur, Pornthep Anussornnitisarn, and Zbigniew Pastuszak
‘The strength of Japanese manufacturing industries is in the technology
(based on) tacit knowledge. With the progress in Information Technology
(IT), tacit knowledge is converted into explicit knowledge. Still, we need
tacit knowledge. To build a car, we have to educate people.’ This state-
ment also indicates the need for IT to support the organizational knowl-
edge creation process within a firm, as information technology is a sup-
porting factor of the organizational structure and enhances organizational
performance.
In this research, we focused on the herbal industry, since Thailand is
rich in a variety of herbs, as can be seen from the increasing number of
new herbal products entering the market, and the increasing trend of herbal
consumption. The herbal industry in Thailand has shown rapid growth and is
becoming popular. According to the report of the Ministry of Industry, Thai-
land, the number of herbal manufacturers has increased by approximately
23 percent between 2004 and 2012. The creation of innovative products
is an important part of the herbal industry. The main focus of the herbal
industry is to reduce time-to-market, as well as launch unique products.
Moreover, the herbal industry has unique characteristics such as high cost
of R&D investment in developing products, and a highly regulatory environ-
ment.
Currently, most herbal manufacturers develop product formulations by
themselves and keep them as a trade secret; so, in regards to the organi-
zation knowledge, the knowledge and experience of personnel is of highest
value to the firm. In addition, almost all herb products in Thailand have been
developed by incremental innovation.
The organizational aspect, which may be able to support increasing in-
novation performance, is knowledge sharing amongst individuals within the
company. Knowledge sharing can bring a lot of benefits to the firm, such
as faster creation of new innovative products or services. Therefore, the
purpose of this research aims to:
• investigate the relationship among knowledge sharing, information
technology, and innovation,
• identify the mediating effect of knowledge sharing on these relation-
ships.
The next sections of this paper are organized as follows: the second
section describes the relevant literature review; the third section develops
the research model and launches the hypotheses for testing; the fourth
section presents the research methodology and data collection procedure;
the fifth section reports the data analysis and results; and the last section
discusses the results, presents the conclusion, the limitations of this study,
and further research directions.
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning
The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing 229
Literature Review
Knowledge Sharing
In an era of competition, one of the most important intangible assets of
an organization is knowledge rather than capital and labor. Nonaka et al.
(2006) mentioned that knowledge is the key success factor of an organiza-
tion. Organizations must adapt in order to gain the competitive advantage
and survive in a fiercely competitive global economy.
Many earlier scholars defined knowledge in a variety of ways; however,
there is no consensus about its characteristics (King, 2009). Two common
types of knowledge in the field of knowledge management consist of explicit
and tacit knowledge. Firstly, explicit knowledge refers to knowledge that can
be easily articulated, expressed in words and numbers, and can be stored
in repositories, communicated, and reproduced. Secondly, tacit knowledge
refers to knowledge that is difficult to articulate, hard to transfer to others,
and is based on experiences and commitments of people (Nonaka, 1994;
Polanyi, 1966).
In order to gain and sustain a competitive advantage, managing the
knowledge resource becomes an essential issue in the development of an
organization (Davenport, De Long, & Beers, 1998). Organizational knowl-
edge is usually accrued and distributed within an organization. Moreover, to
improve products, services, or organizational performance, multiple knowl-
edge sources are required. The integration of knowledge can be accrued
based on the sharing of individual knowledge.
Knowledge sharing is defined as ‘activities of transferring or dissemi-
nating knowledge from one person, group or organization to another’ (Lee,
2001, p. 324). Moreover, knowledge sharing can benefit an organization if
individuals are willing to share (Nonaka, 1995). One benefit of knowledge
constitutes the direct effect on organizational performance, namely innova-
tion. In other words, knowledge sharing is an ingredient of the innovation
process. Moreover, it provides other benefits to the organization, such as
increased intellectual capital, interchange between individual competitive-
ness and organizational competiveness, and reduced organizational costs
of employees’ knowledge gathering (Zhang, Li, & Shi, 2005).
Information Technology
During the past decade, much literature in the field of information technol-
ogy demonstrated the importance of information technology in the improve-
ment of an organization’s performance. Information technology is a support-
ing factor of an organization that increases organizational innovation and
performance. Yang and Chen (2007) suggest four main factors on the orga-
nizational level, which have an effect on knowledge sharing. These consist
Volume 2, Issue 2, 2013
230 Onwika Kaewchur, Pornthep Anussornnitisarn, and Zbigniew Pastuszak
of culture, structure, people, and technology. In regards to the technologi-
cal aspects, they identified IT infrastructure as the most important factor,
followed by IT know-how, and IT-support. In addition, Hsu (2006) suggested
three approaches that are used to enhance employees’ knowledge sharing
within organizations: 1) technology-based approach 2) incentive-based ap-
proach and 3) organizational-based approach. A technology-based approach
requires information technology to support individuals in sharing their knowl-
edge within the organization.
Furthermore, there are two basic approaches to knowledge management
for which IT can provide support: codification and personalization (Hansen,
Nohria, & Tierney, 1999). In the case of the codification approach, explicit
and structured knowledge is codified and stored in knowledge bases. The
main role of IT is to help people to share knowledge through common stor-
age so as to achieve economic reuse of knowledge, e.g. IT tools are elec-
tronic knowledge repositories. In the case of the personalization approach
tacit and unstructured knowledge is shared largely through direct personal
communication. The main role of IT is to help people locate each other and
communicate so as to achieve complex knowledge transfer, e.g. IT tools
are knowledge expert directories and video conferencing tools. Both are
fundamental for the understanding of the role of information technology in
knowledge management.
Innovation
Innovation can be defined as simply the introduction of something new (Dav-
enport, 1993). A more extensive explanation can be found in the Oslo Man-
ual (OECD, 2005), which identifies that ‘innovation is the implementation of
a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new
marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices,
workplace organization, or external relations.’ Most innovation definitions
are focused on improvement within an organization in order to meet its
business goals. Innovation can be categorized into various types. For in-
stance, Tidd, Bessant, and Pavitt (2005) focused on the pathway to be ex-
amined when creating an innovation. Innovation is categorized in four types,
which can be called the 4Ps of innovation. These consist of 1) Product in-
novation: changes in the things (products/services) that an organization of-
fers; 2) Process innovation: changes in the ways in which they are created
and delivered; 3) Position innovation: changes in the context in which the
products/services are introduced; 4) Paradigm innovation: changes in the
underlying mental models, which frame what the organization does. More-
over, the Oslo Manual (OECD, 2005) categorized innovation into four types –
product innovation, process innovation, market innovation, and organization
innovation.
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning
The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing 231
Information Technology and Knowledge Sharing
Information technology is an essential administrative support function and
can increase the competitive advantage of the firm. Information technolo-
gies can not only improve a firm performance, but also support knowledge
sharing among individuals within the firm. Ng, Lee, Foo, and Gan (2012)
proposed a research model which postulates that knowledge management
implementation can improve the technological innovation of firms. Ismail
and Yusof (2010) investigated the influence of technological factors, which
included information technology infrastructure, know-how, and tools on the
knowledge sharing quality of government officers in Malaysia. The results
showed that information technology know-how, such as IT training of em-
ployees, is the most important variable in increasing knowledge sharing
quality, followed by infrastructure, and tools. Moreover, much literature ar-
gues that IT can support employee knowledge sharing. Aulawi, Sudirman,
Suryadi, and Govindaraju (2008) described IT as an important factor that
has a direct effect on the knowledge sharing behavior of employees. IT can
also support the sharing behavior of the informal knowledge of employees
(Davison, Ou, & Martinsons, 2013).
Information Technology and Innovation
Huang, Li, and Chen (2009) stated that the level of a firm’s innovation
can be improved by information synergy and IT capability. Furthermore, an
appropriate information technology system could improve the efficiency of
knowledge management in an innovative organization (Norek, 2013). More-
over, Bartel, Ichniowski, and Shaw (2007) explained that investment in new
information technology in a manufacturing firm will have a valuable effect,
such as increasing productivity growth and product innovation performance.
As a result, worker skills in IT should improve simultaneously.
Knowledge Sharing and Innovation
Most early literature agreed that knowledge sharing has an influence on
innovation. Wang and Wang (2012) pointed out that explicit and tacit knowl-
edge sharing both have direct influence on a firm’s innovation and per-
formance. Explicit knowledge sharing has greater influence on innovation
speed, while tacit knowledge has more influence on innovation quality. Fur-
thermore, Saenz, Aramburu, and Blanco (2012) focused on the effect of
knowledge sharing mechanism on innovation capability. The results indi-
cated that personal-interaction based knowledge sharing initiatives were the
most influential, while ICT-based knowledge sharing initiatives and knowl-
edge sharing embedded in management processes were respectively sig-
nificant. Moreover, Liao, Fei, and Chen (2007) argued that knowledge shar-
ing plays an important role in developing a firm’s innovation. In addition,
Volume 2, Issue 2, 2013
232 Onwika Kaewchur, Pornthep Anussornnitisarn, and Zbigniew Pastuszak
Information
Technology
Knowledge
Sharing
Innovation
H1
H3
H
2
Figure 1 The Research Model
knowledge must be absorbed and then shared between employees with
the purpose of increasing a firm’s innovative capability, thus benefiting the
company.
The Research Model and Hypotheses
The research model was constructed following earlier relevant literature as
shown in Figure 1. It shows the research model with all variables. It also il-
lustrates the relationship between knowledge sharing, information technol-
ogy, and innovation. Three research hypotheses of this study were gener-
ated in order to test the relationship among knowledge sharing, information
technology, and innovation. Moreover, the mediating effect of knowledge
sharing on the relationship between information technology and a firm’s
innovation was also tested in the final step.
To establish the mediating role of knowledge sharing, three hypotheses
were proposed according to Baron and Kenny (1986, p. 1177):
First, the independent variable must affect the mediator in the first
equation; second, the independent variable must affect the depen-
dent variable in the second equation; and third, the mediator must
affect the dependent variable in the third equation. If these conditions
all hold in the predicted direction, then the effect of the independent
variable on the dependent variable must be less in the third equa-
tion than in the second. Perfect mediation holds if the independent
variable has no effect when the mediator is controlled.
The hypotheses were established following Baron and Kenny (1986) and
earlier relevant literature:
H1 Information technology has a positive influence on employee knowl-
edge sharing.
H2 Information technology has a positive influence on a firm’s innovation.
H3 Knowledge sharing has a positive influence on a firm’s innovation.
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning
The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing 233
Research Method and Data Collection
Research Methodology
First, the hypotheses of this study were established based on the approach
of Baron and Kenney (1986). Then, to analyze the mediation hypotheses,
the bootstrapping method developed by Preacher and Hayes (2008) was
employed. Moreover, Preacher and Hayes (2008) argued that this mediation
testing procedure has more advantages than other techniques, such as the
causal steps approach (Baron & Kenny, 1986). For example, the multiple
mediators can be tested either simultaneously or separately. Secondly, this
method can also be applied to small samples. Due to the fact that the boot-
strapping method, which is based on 5,000 bootstrap samples, is mainly
used to test the mediation hypotheses, there is no need to test multivariate
normality. Thirdly, this method employs only one single analysis to test the
multiple mediator models; therefore, the risk of making type I error is re-
duced. Moreover, the bootstrapping method is a non-parametric resampling
procedure; the data set is repeatedly sampled and then indirect effect is
estimated in each resampling data set.
Therefore, in this study, SPSS was mainly used to analyze the data,
while the macro developed by Preacher and Hayes (2008), also known as
the indirect macro, was used to analyze the mediator effect. Moreover, this
study was based on 5,000 bootstrap samples and a 95 percent confidence
interval.
Measurement Development
In this study, the measured items of all variables in the research model
were primarily adopted from relevant former literature. These included three
major variables – information technology, knowledge sharing, and a firm’s
innovation as shown in Table 1. Firstly, information technology contained
six measured items, which were adopted from Yang and Chen (2007);
Wang and Wang (2012); Ismail and Yusof (2010). All items focused on
IT infrastructure and employees’ IT knowledge. Secondly, knowledge shar-
ing consisted of six measured items, which were adopted form Lin and
Lee (2006); Baharim (2008); Wang and Wang (2012). The measured items
emphasized explicit and tacit knowledge sharing of the employees. Lastly,
innovation contained eight measured items, which were adopted from Liao
et al. (2007), Aulawi et al. (2008), and Norek, 2013. The measured items
focused on product and process innovation within the firm.
Data Collection Procedure
The quantitative method was employed in this study. Questionnaires were
used as the data collection tool. The questionnaires were distributed to
Volume 2, Issue 2, 2013
234 Onwika Kaewchur, Pornthep Anussornnitisarn, and Zbigniew Pastuszak
Table 1 Variables Development
Variables No. of items Sources
Information technology 6 Yang and Chen (2007), Wang and Wang (2012), Ismail and
Yusof (2010)
Knowledge sharing 6 Lin and Lee (2006), Baharim (2008), Wang and Wang (2012)
Innovation 8 Liao et al. (2007), Aulawi et al. (2008), Norek (2013)
Table 2 Profile of Herbal Manufacturers and Number of Respondents
Category No. of respondents Percent
Main Products Herb medicine 92 40.9
Herb cosmetics 45 20.1
Herb food and supplement 67 29.9
Herb spa products 4 1.8
Others 16 7.3
Age of business Less than 1 year 6 2.7
1–5 20 8.9
6–10 138 61.6
11–15 30 13.4
16–20 28 12.5
More than 20 years 2 0.9
Number of employees Less than 50 48 21.2
50–199 28 12.4
200–499 69 31.0
More than 500 79 35.4
Table 3 Scale Reliability
Dimension No. of items Cronbach’s alpha coefficient
Information technology (IT) 6 0.762
Knowledge sharing (KS) 6 0.739
Innovation (IN) 8 0.716
42 herbal manufacturers from November, 2012 to January, 2013 by mail
and walk-in. There were a total of 224 usable questionnaires. The profile of
herbal manufacturers and number of respondents is shown in Table 2.
Reliability Test
The questionnaire design was primarily based on the literature review. The
questionnaires were measured by internal consistence reliability based on
the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient technique. The results indicating the Cron-
bach’s alpha coefficient of knowledge sharing, information technology, and
a firm’s innovation are shown in Table 3. As displayed, overall the results
are above the acceptable level 0.7. This indicates that each measured item
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning
The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing 235
Table 4 Descriptive Statistics and Inter-Correlation Matrix
Dimension Mean St. dev. IT KS IN
IT 3.2210 0.7190 1.000
KS 3.5499 0.5481 0.356 1.000
IN 3.2355 0.8185 0.252 0.278 1.000
of the questionnaire has a high internal consistency. Moreover, the mean
and standard deviation of each variable and the inter-correlation among
variables are displayed in Table 4.
Measurement
In this study, all of the measured items were adopted from earlier research.
These consisted of the following three constructs – knowledge sharing, in-
formation technology, and innovation. Moreover, a five-point Likert scale,
which ranged from ‘1 = strongly disagree’ to ‘5 = strongly agree,’ was em-
ployed to measure all items.
Data Analysis and Results
The questionnaires from 224 respondents from 42 manufacturers of herbal
industry were used in the data analysis. Table 5 displays the respondent’s
characteristics according to demographics.
The results of this research display that the relationship between the
independent variable, information technology, and the mediating variable,
knowledge sharing, is positive and significant. Moreover, the relationship
between the dependent variable, innovation, and the mediating variable,
knowledge sharing, is also positive and significant. Therefore, the results
of hypotheses testing are as follows:
•H1 presents the relationship between information technology and
knowledge sharing. The results display that information technology
is positively and significantly (β = 0.2711, t = 5.6689, p < 0.001) re-
lated to knowledge sharing.
•H2 presents the relationship between information technology and a
firm’s innovation. The results display that information technology is
positively and significantly (β= 0.1990, t = 2.5663, p<0.001) related
to a firm’s innovation.
•H3 presents the relationship between knowledge sharing and a firm’s
innovation. The results display that information technology is signifi-
cantly (β = 0.3226, t = 3.1709, p < 0.001) related to a firm’s innova-
tion.
Moreover, H1, H2 and H3 are significant, and mediation analysis was
tested with the use of the bootstrapping method with bias corrected con-
Volume 2, Issue 2, 2013
236 Onwika Kaewchur, Pornthep Anussornnitisarn, and Zbigniew Pastuszak
Table 5 Respondent’s Demographic Profiles
Respondent’s profile Classification Frequency Percentage
Gender Male
Female
81
143
36.0
64.0
Age 20–29
30–39
40–49
50 and above
117
65
20
22
52.2
29.2
8.8
9.8
Educational level High school
Bachelor
Master
PhD
20
163
41
0
8.9
72.8
18.3
0.0
Year of experience Less than 1 year
1–5 years
6–10 years
11–15 years
More than 15 years
28
83
56
16
41
12.5
37.1
25.0
7.1
18.3
Department Production
R&D
Engineering/maintenance
Quality Control
Others
65
54
20
65
20
29.0
24.1
8.9
29.0
9.0
fidence estimates from Preacher and Hayes in SPPS macro. In this study,
a 95% confidence interval of the indirect effects was obtained with 5,000
bootstrap resamples (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). The mediated hypothesis
was tested and the results of the mediation analysis confirm the mediation
role of knowledge sharing in the relationship between information technol-
ogy and a firm’s innovation (β= 0.0874, CI = 0.0344 to 0.1611). In addition,
it indicates that knowledge sharing providesa partial mediation effect be-
tween information technology and a firm’s innovation. Moreover, the overall
model is significant, R2 = 0.1265, F = 32.1361, p<0.001.
Discussion
This goal of this study is to develop a framework for examining knowledge
sharing, information technology, and innovation. The research samples were
obtained from employees of herbal manufacturers in Thailand.
Firstly, the results display that information technology has a positive in-
fluence on knowledge sharing. The results of this study are consistent with
earlier relevant researches (Aulawi et al., 2008; Davison et al., 2013; Is-
mail & Yusof, 2010). Information technology also has a positive influence
on a firm’s innovation. The results of this study are consistent with earlier
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning
The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing 237
relevant researches by Huang et al. (2009) and Bartel et al. (2007). Much
earlier research also showed a strong relationship between knowledge shar-
ing and a firm’s innovation (Liao et al., 2007; Saenz et al., 2012; Wang and
Wang, 2012). The results of this study also indicate that knowledge sharing
has a significantly positive influence on a firm’s innovation. Furthermore, the
results indicate that knowledge sharing is a partial mediator between infor-
mation technology and a firm’s innovation. This means that it is not only an
indirect predictor of a firm’s innovation, but could also support information
technology’s influence on a firm’s innovation.
In the field of herbal manufacturing in Thailand, innovation is the key
driver of business and competitiveness. Both public and private organiza-
tions, such as The National Innovation Agency, Thailand, provided support
to herbal manufacturers in order to develop their innovation. The results
indicate that most herbal manufacturers focus more on their product in-
novation rather than on process innovation. Moreover, due to certain con-
straints, such as high cost of R&D investment and inadequate expertise,
most of herbal manufacturers developed their products as an incremental
innovation. Multiple sources of knowledge are required to develop organi-
zation innovation – not only explicit knowledge, but also tacit knowledge,
such as employee experience, which becomes an essential aspect of the
organizational knowledge. The ability to change tacit knowledge to explicit
knowledge and share this knowledge with others is most valuable to an
organization. This indicates that knowledge sharing of employees plays an
important role in an organization. In this study, it also emerged that employ-
ees in herbal manufacturing shared their explicit knowledge rather than tacit
knowledge. Their tacit knowledge, however, could mostly be shared through
training programs.
In addition, information technology becomes an organizational factor in
increasing knowledge sharing and firm’s innovation. In this study, we found
that many herbal manufacturers emphasize the information technology is-
sue; however, they focus on the information technology infrastructure rather
than employee information knowledge. For example, some manufacturers
provided LAN system and intranet to share their information and knowledge
within the organization. Moreover, some of them invested in the video con-
ference system to communicate within the organization. Furthermore, some
of them preferred to communicate with their employees and customers via
social network. However, there were not many organizations which provided
training courses in information technology to their employees.
Essentially, the results of this study display that knowledge sharing is
a partial mediator between information technology and organization innova-
tion. It indicates that knowledge sharing is not only directly related to or-
ganization innovation, but also leverages information technology influence
Volume 2, Issue 2, 2013
238 Onwika Kaewchur, Pornthep Anussornnitisarn, and Zbigniew Pastuszak
on an organization’s innovation. It can be said that sharing knowledge is
proportional to utilizing information technology in order to enhance the or-
ganization’s innovation. In other words, information technology can support
the knowledge sharing of employees with functionalities such as commu-
nication among individuals, sharing information and knowledge via the or-
ganizational network, storing data, and supporting decision making. More-
over, organizations facilitate the effectiveness of information technology in-
frastructures and the knowledge of employees in the field of information
technology by providing training courses to increase knowledge sharing of
employees, which can also drive innovation and competitiveness of the or-
ganization.
Research Implications
This study emphasizes the importance of knowledge sharing, information
technology, and organizational innovation. The results of this study have
both theoretical and practical implications that can be described as follows:
• Theoretical implications. This study discusses the theoretical develop-
ment in the field of information technology, knowledge sharing, and
organizational innovation. The theoretical contribution of this study is
the development of a research model, which enhances the essen-
tial variable, knowledge sharing, as the mediator between the rela-
tionship between information technology and organizational innova-
tion. The contribution of this study is valuable because, when review-
ing the earlier relevant literature, we found that although much of
it addressed the relationships between knowledge sharing, informa-
tion technology, and organizational innovation, there is no research
on knowledge sharing as the mediating variable between information
technology and innovation. As displayed by the results, the implemen-
tation of knowledge sharing among employees within an organization
and providing an appropriate information technology system could
leverage the level of organizational innovation, for example through
the creation of new ideas. Therefore, it can be concluded that knowl-
edge sharing and information technology are the critical factors, which
can increase the innovation performance of an organization.
•Practical implications. The results of this study also suggest some
useful managerial insights. Firstly, from the managerial perspective,
managers should emphasize both information technology and knowl-
edge sharing among employees in order to increase their organi-
zational innovation performance. With regard to knowledge sharing
among employees within an organization, encouraging employees to
share both their explicit and tacit knowledge represents an essen-
tial approach to increasing organizational innovation. Nevertheless,
International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning
The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing 239
tacit knowledge sharing is difficult to perform in the framework of rou-
tine work. Utilizing information technology is one possible approach
to assisting in sharing tacit knowledge; however, it does not provide
an exact method of increasing organizational innovation. Managers
should also pay attention to other factors, such as improving organiza-
tional culture, providing a reward system and encouraging interaction
among employees. Moreover, external knowledge sharing should also
encourage employees, especially in the R&D department, to improve
the product and process innovation of the organization.
Secondly, this study indicates the influence of information technology
on knowledge sharing and organizational innovation. Therefore, orga-
nizations should provide an appropriate information technology infras-
tructure in order to support knowledge sharing and increase organi-
zational innovation performance. Furthermore, organizations should
also recognize the knowledge and skills of employees in information
technology with the purpose of taking full advantage of the benefits
provided by the information technology. For example, organizational
managers could provide appropriate IT training programs for employ-
ees within an organization.
Significance of Research Findings
In the current fiercely competitive marketplace, an essential way for survival
of an organization is effective innovation. The ability to create and continu-
ously develop employees’ own innovation should also be emphasized. There
are both internal and external factors that can drive the innovation of an or-
ganization. In recent years, an increasing amount of literature addresses
the issue of organizational innovation development. This study mainly fo-
cuses on the technological perspective and knowledge management within
organizations in order to increase organizational innovation performance.
The relationship between information technology and organizational in-
novation has been widely investigated. However, this study aims to inves-
tigate the relationship between information technology and organizational
innovation, and then add knowledge sharing as the mediator. Then we can
hypothesize that information technology and knowledge sharing positively
influence organizational innovation, while knowledge sharing as a mediat-
ing effect is also simultaneously investigated with regard to the relationship
between information technology and a firm’s innovation.
The results of this study confirm previous research results showing that
information technology and knowledge sharing positively influence organi-
zational innovation and provide additional evidence that knowledge sharing
can play a mediating role in leveraging information technology to increase
organization innovation performance.
Given the importance of information technology, knowledge sharing and
Volume 2, Issue 2, 2013
240 Onwika Kaewchur, Pornthep Anussornnitisarn, and Zbigniew Pastuszak
innovation in today’s world, the results of this study will serve as the base
for further studies in several areas, such as innovation improvement, organi-
zational development, knowledge management, organizational planning and
management, and human resource management. Moreover, it could act as
a guide for developing organizational innovation through utilizing information
technology in order to share knowledge among employees. In addition, the
results of this study could also provide a better understanding of knowledge
sharing, information technology, and innovation within organizations.
Limitations and Future Research
In this research, there are some unavoidable limitations. Firstly, it is based
on a small number of organizations; therefore, the results may not be gener-
alized to all other organizations. Consequently, future research should focus
on a larger number of organizations in order to obtain a broad view of re-
sults. Secondly, this study only focused on the perspectives of staff level
employees. Therefore, future research should focus on the perspectives of
top level management and may compare the perspectives of managers and
employees in order to examine the gap and establish appropriate strategies
for increasing organization innovation performance. In addition, research of
different sample backgrounds, such as other countries, other industries, or
comparison between different industries could also be performed. Finally,
some other relevant variables may also be added to the research model
and their relationships could be investigated in further studies to better
understand the critical success factors in firm’s innovation improvement.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Thai-
land.
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Volume 2, Issue 2, 2013
242 Onwika Kaewchur, Pornthep Anussornnitisarn, and Zbigniew Pastuszak
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Onwika Kaewchur is pursuing her Doctoral degree in Industrial Engineering
at Kasetsart University. She has focused her research on knowledge man-
agement, innovation and learning of an organization on long-term competi-
tiveness. onwika@gmail.com
Pornthep Anussornnitisarn is a Lecturer and the Deputy Director of Interna-
tional Graduate Program in Industrial Engineering, Department of Industrial
Engineering at Kasetsart University. He received his Doctoral degree in Indus-
trial Engineering from Purdue University in 2003. His research includes lo-
gistics, supply-chain management, and applied ICT to improve organizational
learning and development. fengpta@ku.ac.th
Zbigniew Pastuszak is the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, and is currently
teaching at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Poland. He has worked in
the area of information technology application to improve communication
and information flows within and across organizations. He is also conduct-
ing several research projects in e-commerce and organizational development.
z.pastuszak@umcs.lublin.pl
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