Constructing on-line knowledge sharing model for R&D staff: An empirical study in Taiwan

The number of enterprises implementing knowledge management (KM) has grown dramatically in recent years. However, few companies could achieve their target and successfully implement KM, especially in Taiwan. There are several factors that need to be considered while developing or implementing knowledge sharing system. This paper is intended to specify factors which effect knowledge sharing as perceived by R&D engineers. The study conducted a questionnaire survey along with literature review. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the fitness between the model and data. Based on the results, two conclusions were made as follows. First, six aspects composed factors affecting one to share knowledge on-line, which were organizational culture, base construction of discussion board, rewards, job stress, knowledge sharing design, and willingness of sharing knowledge. Second, among the six aspects, the factor of knowledge sharing design influenced most, and then organizational culture, rewards, base construction of discussion board, job stress, and willingness of sharing knowledge orderly.