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Innovation and Knowledge Sharing: A New Competitive Advantage in the Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Ghana

Received: 20 July 2015     Accepted: 30 July 2015     Published: 10 August 2015
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Abstract

Ghana over the past three decades has witnessed the revolution of economic growth through innovations in the telecommunications sector. This study aims at identifying and examining the influence of the individual and organizational knowledge sharing enablers on knowledge sharing behaviour that leads to the development of firm innovation capability. A questionnaire was developed and administered randomly to a sample of four-hundred employees in the managerial and developmental levels of six mobile telecommunications companies. Three hundred and fifty-one were accepted for analysis. In analysing the data, a simple descriptive statistic was adopted. The results of the analysis affirmed the existence of a positive effect of the individual factor “teamwork in helping others” and the organizational innovation factor “top management support” on the employee knowledge sharing behaviour. Employee willingness to donate and collect knowledge is significantly related to firm innovation capability and has influence on it. However, there is no influence of the individual factor “knowledge self-efficacy” and the organizational factor “organizational rewards” on the employee knowledge sharing behaviour. The researchers therefore concluded that employees in the Ghanaian telecommunications sector are influenced by their managers’ support, help and encouragement to share knowledge more than the organizational rewards system. Hence, they do not expect to receive more rewards to increase their knowledge sharing attitude. The paper provides recommendations to help facilitate knowledge sharing and thereby increase the innovation capabilities of these firms.

Published in Science Journal of Business and Management (Volume 3, Issue 5)
DOI 10.11648/j.sjbm.20150305.14
Page(s) 157-163
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Innovation, Knowledge Sharing, Telecommunications, Ghana

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Daniel Ofori, Abraham Osei, Shadrach Ato – Mensah, Ernest Kwame Affum. (2015). Innovation and Knowledge Sharing: A New Competitive Advantage in the Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Ghana. Science Journal of Business and Management, 3(5), 157-163. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjbm.20150305.14

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    ACS Style

    Daniel Ofori; Abraham Osei; Shadrach Ato – Mensah; Ernest Kwame Affum. Innovation and Knowledge Sharing: A New Competitive Advantage in the Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Ghana. Sci. J. Bus. Manag. 2015, 3(5), 157-163. doi: 10.11648/j.sjbm.20150305.14

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    AMA Style

    Daniel Ofori, Abraham Osei, Shadrach Ato – Mensah, Ernest Kwame Affum. Innovation and Knowledge Sharing: A New Competitive Advantage in the Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Ghana. Sci J Bus Manag. 2015;3(5):157-163. doi: 10.11648/j.sjbm.20150305.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.sjbm.20150305.14,
      author = {Daniel Ofori and Abraham Osei and Shadrach Ato – Mensah and Ernest Kwame Affum},
      title = {Innovation and Knowledge Sharing: A New Competitive Advantage in the Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Ghana},
      journal = {Science Journal of Business and Management},
      volume = {3},
      number = {5},
      pages = {157-163},
      doi = {10.11648/j.sjbm.20150305.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjbm.20150305.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjbm.20150305.14},
      abstract = {Ghana over the past three decades has witnessed the revolution of economic growth through innovations in the telecommunications sector. This study aims at identifying and examining the influence of the individual and organizational knowledge sharing enablers on knowledge sharing behaviour that leads to the development of firm innovation capability. A questionnaire was developed and administered randomly to a sample of four-hundred employees in the managerial and developmental levels of six mobile telecommunications companies. Three hundred and fifty-one were accepted for analysis. In analysing the data, a simple descriptive statistic was adopted. The results of the analysis affirmed the existence of a positive effect of the individual factor “teamwork in helping others” and the organizational innovation factor “top management support” on the employee knowledge sharing behaviour. Employee willingness to donate and collect knowledge is significantly related to firm innovation capability and has influence on it. However, there is no influence of the individual factor “knowledge self-efficacy” and the organizational factor “organizational rewards” on the employee knowledge sharing behaviour. The researchers therefore concluded that employees in the Ghanaian telecommunications sector are influenced by their managers’ support, help and encouragement to share knowledge more than the organizational rewards system. Hence, they do not expect to receive more rewards to increase their knowledge sharing attitude. The paper provides recommendations to help facilitate knowledge sharing and thereby increase the innovation capabilities of these firms.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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    T1  - Innovation and Knowledge Sharing: A New Competitive Advantage in the Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Ghana
    AU  - Daniel Ofori
    AU  - Abraham Osei
    AU  - Shadrach Ato – Mensah
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    T2  - Science Journal of Business and Management
    JF  - Science Journal of Business and Management
    JO  - Science Journal of Business and Management
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    PB  - Science Publishing Group
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    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjbm.20150305.14
    AB  - Ghana over the past three decades has witnessed the revolution of economic growth through innovations in the telecommunications sector. This study aims at identifying and examining the influence of the individual and organizational knowledge sharing enablers on knowledge sharing behaviour that leads to the development of firm innovation capability. A questionnaire was developed and administered randomly to a sample of four-hundred employees in the managerial and developmental levels of six mobile telecommunications companies. Three hundred and fifty-one were accepted for analysis. In analysing the data, a simple descriptive statistic was adopted. The results of the analysis affirmed the existence of a positive effect of the individual factor “teamwork in helping others” and the organizational innovation factor “top management support” on the employee knowledge sharing behaviour. Employee willingness to donate and collect knowledge is significantly related to firm innovation capability and has influence on it. However, there is no influence of the individual factor “knowledge self-efficacy” and the organizational factor “organizational rewards” on the employee knowledge sharing behaviour. The researchers therefore concluded that employees in the Ghanaian telecommunications sector are influenced by their managers’ support, help and encouragement to share knowledge more than the organizational rewards system. Hence, they do not expect to receive more rewards to increase their knowledge sharing attitude. The paper provides recommendations to help facilitate knowledge sharing and thereby increase the innovation capabilities of these firms.
    VL  - 3
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Author Information
  • School of Economics, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, P. R. China

  • School of Management & Economics, University of Electronic Science & Technology of China, Chengdu, P. R. China

  • School of Economics, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, P. R. China

  • School of Business Administration, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, P. R. China

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