Impact of knowledge-sharing culture on organizational creativity : integrating explicit and tacit knowledge sharing as mediators

Yıldız, Tayfun (author), Balkan Akan, Betül (author), Siğri, Ünsal (author), Dabić, Marina (author)

Purpose – Tacit and explicit knowledge sharing play crucial roles in today’s rapidly changing business environment, particularly in fostering innovation. However, uncovering tacit knowledge sharing remains complex. The purpose of this study is to analyze the mediating roles of tacit and explicit knowledge in the relationship between a knowledge-sharing culture and organizational creativity. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, the authors developed an extended analytical process to analyze the impact of explicit and tacit knowledge on a knowledge-sharing culture and organizational creativity. This process combines two analytical techniques: necessary condition analysis (NCA) and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). NCA identifies essential bottlenecks for a specific outcome, while PLS-SEM uncovers strong connections between predictor and outcome variables. The authors applied these analyses to a sample of 155 IT experts from a leading telecom company in the Turkish ICT industry to test the relevant hypotheses. Findings – The findings of this study indicate that tacit knowledge, rather than explicit knowledge, partially mediates the relationship between a knowledge-sharing culture and organizational creativity. This mediating role of tacit knowledge is particularly pronounced in the ICT sector. Additionally, the impact of organizational capabilities on organizational creativity is amplified by higher levels of tacit knowledge sharing. Originality/value – The effect of organizational capabilities on organizational creativity was found to increase because of tacit knowledge sharing compared to explicit knowledge sharing, depending on the knowledge-sharing climate.

• Language: English
• Keywords: knowledge, corporate culture, knowledge transfer, productivity, knowledge-sharing culture, organizational creativity, explicit-tacit knowledge, PLS-SEM, NCA, tacit knowledge
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 1248-1277
• Numbering: Vol. 29, iss. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-176921
• UDC: 005.3
• ISSN on article: 1367-3270
• DOI: 10.1108/JKM-05-2024-0633
• COBISS.SI-ID: 227578371
• Publication date in RUL: 15.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of knowledge management
• Shortened title: J. knowl. manag.
• Publisher: Emerald Publishing
• ISSN: 1367-3270
• COBISS.SI-ID: 20511749

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: znanje, kultura podjetja, prenos znanja, produktivnost