Explaining Intra-organizational Knowledge Transfer at the Individual Level

The knowledge-based view has recently been criticized for overlooking individual-level action and interaction in favor of an over-emphasis on the firm-level capabilities. This paper seeks to respond to that criticism by providing some individual-level explanations for a collective-level phenomenon – intraorganizational knowledge transfer. We suggest that variations in individual ability, motivation and the use of interaction opportunities provided by the organization explain part of the variation found in individuallevel knowledge acquisition and use, and that this has an influence on organizational level knowledge transfer within a firm. More specifically, we find that ability and intrinsic motivation are important drivers of individual level knowledge acquisition and use, while extrinsic motivation has no impact. Furthermore, the extent to which an individual uses interaction opportunities provided by the organization influences knowledge transfer both directly and through a moderator effect with ability and person-to-person interaction.