Facilitadores de los procesos de compartir conocimiento y su influencia sobre la innovación

This paper pursues two aims. Firstly, to indentify knowledge sharing enablers, and secondly, to analyze the effect of knowledge sharing processes on innovation performance. Regarding the first aim, two groups of factors have been considered: motivational factors, such as affective commitment and high involvement human resource management practices; and factors that create the opportunity to share knowledge, including informal communication, structured teamwork and information and communication technologies. Hypotheses have been tested on a sample of 87 Spanish innovative firms. Results show that both motivational factors positively influence the extent to which knowledge is shared, playing affective commitment a partial mediator role between high involvement practices and knowledge sharing. Regarding opportunity factors, only those that allow face to face interactions, such as informal communication and teamwork, represents effective mechanisms to encourage knowledge sharing processes. Finally, knowledge sharing within the organization positively affects innovation performance.