Article Preview
TopLiterature Review
In the last three decades, knowledge management (KM) has drawn much attention from academics and business societies. Research on this field covers a wide range of topics, from fundamental concepts, theories, technologies, applications to social issues, managerial impacts and emerging trends. A variety of techniques, methodologies, and measurement tools have been developed, allowing researchers to develop, deliver and evaluate the effectiveness of several areas of knowledge management (Jennex, M.E, 2007).
KT is a big KM research discipline and much research has been done in this area. William, King defined that “knowledge transfer is used in a generic sense to include any exchange of knowledge between or among individuals, teams, groups, or organizations, whether intended or unintended.” (Jennex, 2007, p. 123). Islam, N. (2006) praised the role of the knowledge transfer as the key to wealth generation and growth in 21st century. Policy makers and researchers often focus on the ease and effect of the transference. Pieng, Tong and Koh (2003) confirmed that in order to have successful KT, the transferors are required to be willing and capable to transfer the knowledge. Several transferee-focused researchers found that recipients’ willingness and capability to acquire knowledge are indispensable for the fruitfulness of the transfer (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Tsai, 2001; Chang, Gong and Peng, 2012). Other researchers placed the transferor and transferee in a symmetrical relationship and concluded that factors relating to them both affect the knowledge transfer (Pieng, Tong and Koh, 2003; Anh, Baughn, Hang and Neupert, 2006).