Knowledge Sharing: Why is it Worthwhile? How an Ancient Practice has Become Fundamental to Invest on Human Capital
Silvia Dell\'Acqua, Scuola Superiore Sant\'Anna of Pisa (Italy)
Abstract
The core question of the paper will be: “Why we share knowledge instead of keeping it for us?”. In other words, why should people give up their hard-won knowledge, when it is one of their key sources? In some organisations, sharing is natural. In others the old dictum "knowledge is power" reigns.
“Because that would not be possible”. A simple answer. True indeed.
However, when a teacher and his or her pupils are in a class, knowledge is already shared. Therefore, since the ancient times Aristotle, Plato were, in a sense, sharing their knowledge with their
fellows…nowadays technologies have magnified the sharing effect of a practice which is as old as the world.
Knowledge is shared in space and time in both synchronous and asynchronous dimensions, with results and potentials which are deeply different in their nature and dynamics. In the specific the study of knowledge sharing has its roots within the technology transfer and innovation literature.
The research in this area has focused on explanations for different actors’ successes or failures in fostering human capital growth through technological development.
Starting from this point, the paper aims at focusing on specific angles of knowledge sharing (i.e. strategic management fields, the profitability of sharing knowledge) and the final purpose will be to provide a definition of “knowledge- sharing success”.