Knowledge exchange and productivity spill-overs in Bangladeshi garment factories

Andreas Menzel

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021, vol. 185, issue C, 721-746

Abstract: Knowledge sharing between employees has long been viewed as a major driver of firm productivity growth, and the strength of productivity spill-overs within firms is a common measure of knowledge sharing. Using data from three Bangladeshi garment factories, I first find that spill-overs are stronger within organizational sub-divisions of the factories than across. I then show that a management intervention that routinely brought together workers producing the same garments to exchange production knowledge further strengthened spill-overs within sub-divisions, but not across, when it was implemented in randomly selected sub-divisions. These findings suggest that boundaries between sub-divisions pose strong frictions to knowledge sharing within firms.

Keywords: Organizational learning; Productivity; Firms; Randomized trials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D2 L2 M5 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:185:y:2021:i:c:p:721-746

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2021.03.005

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