A Grounded Theory on Knowledge Sharing in Industrial Research: Origination Mechanisms and Their Effects

Organizations need knowledge sharing. However, although many factors influencing the amount of knowledge sharing have been found, the ways in which useful knowledge sharing is initiated and realized is left underexplored. This paper describes ethnographic studies on the realization of the content of knowledge sharing in two industrial research groups. Analyses in line with the grounded theory approach resulted in the concept of ‘origination mechanisms’. Origination mechanisms are distinguished on the basis of three dimensions: (1) did the content of knowledge sharing already exist or is it newly developed in interaction? (2) is this selection or development determined by ego, by alter or by management? (3) is this determination oriented at a problem of ego, a problem of alter, a shared problem or no particular problem at all? The paper describes eight frequently occurring origination mechanisms, their preconditions and their contributions to industrial research practices. The concept of origination mechanisms is able to integrate fragmented findings in the literature and uncover existing biases. The paper ends with the knowledge management implications of this new perspective and the empirical findings on knowledge sharing.