Organizational Modularity And Interaction Memory Research On Knowledge Sharing

With the development of electronic and information technology, modularity has significantly pushed the adjustment and updating of industrial structure. Baldwin and Clark (1997) claimed this view and they thought industries had stepped into modular design, modular production, modular consumption and modular development period.On the other hand, knowledge is becoming more and more important to the organizations. It has become an important asset of an organization, and its importance has exceeded capital and market. In the production activities, the source of the most crucial input and value is knowledge. In competition among companies, they need to rely on the innovation of product and service. And this innovation required employees to freely share their information, thinking and solutions. So we can find that knowledge sharing is becoming the source of the core competency of companies.This research introduced Transactive Memory System (TMS) as a mediate variable, and build up a model including modularity (Distinctiveness and Responsiveness), TMS (Credibility and Coordination) and knowledge sharing. This model can be divided into two parts: knowledge sharing in module and knowledge sharing between modules.By spreading questionnaires, enough samples were collected. Then optimized model was achieved through SPSS and AMOS analysis.After testing the model of knowledge sharing in module, the influencing mechanism was found, which is distinctiveness significantly influence credibility and coordination in single module, and then influence knowledge sharing. Responsiveness is ignored in this model. The mechanism in the model of knowledge sharing between modules is starting from both distinctiveness and responsiveness to the coordination between modules, and finally influencing knowledge sharing between modules. In this model, credibility is ignored.Based on the combination of theoretical and practical findings, the overall conclusion was made. Also, three suggestions were raised to the industries and companies to enhance knowledge sharing. In the end of this dissertation, several shortage of this research was put forward, as well as suggestions to the future research.