Knowledge Sharing Behavior among Vietnamese Academics: The Dominant Roles of Organizational Culture and Leadership
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Abstract
Background/ problem: While knowledge sharing is vital for academic innovation and institutional performance, its behavioral determinants in emerging higher education systems remain inconclusive, particularly regarding the assumed facilitating role of information technology (IT).
Objective/ purpose: Grounded primarily in social exchange theory, this study investigates the effects of organizational culture, top management support, and personality traits on knowledge sharing behavior among university lecturers, while also examining the moderating role of IT.
Design and Methodology: A cross-sectional quantitative survey was administered to 185 academic staff across universities in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and multigroup analysis (MGA).
Results: The model explains 56.0% of the variance in knowledge sharing behavior (R2 = .56). Organizational culture (β = .42, p < .001, f 2 = .34) and top management support (β = .38, p < .001, f 2 = .32) emerged as dominant drivers with medium-to-large effect sizes. Extraversion exerted a significant positive impact (β = .32, p < .001, f 2 = .20), whereas introversion exhibited a small negative effect (β = -.11, p = .03, f 2 = .03). Conversely, IT had neither a significant direct effect (β = .09, p = .07, f 2 = .02) nor a moderating effect on organizational relationships. MGA revealed no significant gender differences.
Conclusion and Implications: Findings demonstrate that knowledge sharing is fundamentally a socially embedded behavioral process. Technological infrastructure cannot substitute for interpersonal trust, collaborative norms, and supportive leadership in fostering academic knowledge exchange.
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