Commitment Enhances Knowledge Sharing against Opportunismin New Product Development

In today business, firms are riding on the wave of globalization to enhance competitiveness through business networking or corporate collaboration. Firms inevitably need to share knowledge among different business partners, in particular, during new product development (NPD). However, knowledge sharing itself would invite opportunism, i. e. knowledge being leaked to other parties or competitors, which is regarded as a threat for innovation. This is the dilemma facing today’s global business. This study examines firm’s competitiveness in relation to firm’s commitment, knowledge sharing and potential opportunism. Data were collection through a questionnaire survey and the 220 valid responses were analysed using structural equation modelling. Our findings indicate that commitment among business partners would enhance knowledge sharing. Contradicting to many research findings, knowledge sharing among committed partner firms actually reduce rather than increase opportunism. Strong commitment between business partners encourages the willingness of firms to share knowledge and strengthen trust among firms which would subsequently reduce opportunism. This controversial finding is new to existing knowledge with strong managerial implication to encourage knowledge sharing among business partners.