Sharing Knowledge to Drive Innovation: Investigating the Roles of Purposeful Sharing, Absorptive Capacity, and Environmental Dynamism

Knowledge is a unique resource, but can sharing it influence innovation outcomes? Based on the knowledge‐based and dynamic capability views, this study aims to investigate the impact of knowledge sharing on innovation performance both directly and indirectly through purposeful knowledge sharing. Additionally, various moderators are examined to assess their effects on these relationships. Over three waves, a large dataset ( N = 1298) was collected from Pakistan's information and communications industry. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the data. The results indicate that both explicit and tacit knowledge sharing positively influence innovation performance, and that purposeful knowledge sharing significantly mediates these relationships. While absorptive capacity strengthens the relationship between explicit knowledge sharing and innovation performance, it does not moderate the impact of tacit knowledge sharing on innovation performance. Furthermore, the study finds no evidence of environmental dynamism affecting the relationship between purposeful knowledge sharing and innovation performance. The study findings emphasize the importance of knowledge sharing and the supportive role of purposeful sharing in improving innovation performance. The theoretical and practical implications are extensively discussed.