The Impact of Knowledge, Source, Situational and Relational Context on Knowledge Transfer During ISD Process

Knowledge transfer is recognized as a crucial activity for project teams to work effectively. However, limited attention has been directed towards examining the role of knowledge transfer in information systems development projects (ISD). In this study we empirically examine the impact of source context, knowledge context, relation context, and situational context on the process of knowledge transfer among ISD face-to-face team members. Specifically, we test the impact of ISD team member´s cultural proclivity, capability, credibility, extent of communication, and group cohesion on the process of knowledge transfer. Our findings suggest that in face-to-face ISD teams, a collectivist individual who has a high task related capability, who is perceived as highly credible, and who frequently communicates with his/her team members is able to transfer significant amount of knowledge. Although, group cohesion did not influence knowledge transfer, our results indicate that a communicative individual from a more cohesive group is able to transfer more knowledge.