Doors and walls: physical barriers and knowledge sharing

Agnieszka Nowinska and Torben Pedersen

Industry and Innovation, 2023, vol. 30, issue 5, 585-606

Abstract: The extant literature has demonstrated that physical distance negatively affects knowledge sharing, even within the same building. Moreover, the impact of physical barriers, such as doors and walls, has been flagged as an important avenue for research. We contribute to the micro-geography literature by unpacking the effects of physical barriers on knowledge sharing and moderators of that relationship. Based on micro-level, single-firm observational data on employees’ knowledge-sharing dyads, we find that physical barriers impede knowledge sharing after accounting for distance. Simultaneously, we theorise on and find evidence of several moderators of the negative relationship between physical barriers and knowledge sharing at the dyadic and individual levels: strong ties, participation in coordination mechanisms across departments, job autonomy, and location in an office near a printer room. The study has implications for managers in charge of office allocation and the physical layout of offices.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13662716.2022.2141611 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:indinn:v:30:y:2023:i:5:p:585-606

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CIAI20

DOI: 10.1080/13662716.2022.2141611

Access Statistics for this article

Industry and Innovation is currently edited by Associate Professor Mark Lorenzen

More articles in Industry and Innovation from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().