The effect of family ownership, organizational leadership and incentive systems on knowledge sharing: an empirical study in moulding industry in southern China

The creation and application of knowledge is important to the survival of businesses in the moulding industry in southern China. Most of them have implemented strategies to manage these processes. However, the real enabler of business success is knowledge sharing. This research investigated the effect of family ownership and two critical success factors - organizational leadership and incentive systems - on knowledge sharing in southern China’s moulding industry. China is considered by many to be the world’s factory and there are a considerable number of moulding developments in its southern region. The moulding industry should leverage its expertise and experience by encouraging enterprises in the industry to develop effective knowledge management strategies, including those for motivating knowledge sharing among employees, in order to enhance their competitiveness in the global market. Prior studies in other countries have investigated the relationships among knowledge sharing implementation, organizational leadership, incentive policies, and family ownership. It was well known that knowledge management is critical to success, few of these studies have taken place in Chinese context and little is known how the Chinese create, codify, and transfer knowledge. Accordingly, this research examined the influential role of the Chinese family owned factor on business performance and whether or not it moderates the effect of organizational leadership and rewarding system on knowledge sharing. This study adopted a quantitative approach with an online questionnaire survey used to collect empirical data for statistical analysis. There were 448 respondents from moulding enterprises in southern China that helped to reveal the practice of knowledge sharing. The findings confirm that two critical success factors, organizational leadership and incentive systems, have a significant influence on knowledge sharing, while family ownership is statistically significant but not substantial enough to support a positive relationship.