Knowledge sharing: game and reasoned action perspectives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate knowledge sharing (KS) to characterize its behavior in companies based on the concepts of theory of reasoned action and game theory (GT). Design/methodology/approach – The paper proposes two models: Model A: KS process is constructed by capturing personal psychological feelings; and Model B: KS process is not only constructed by personal psychological feelings but also takes into consideration other people's decisions. By comparing the two knowledge‐sharing models' predictability performance, the authors are able to characterize the process of KS. Findings – The results show that different companies require different models. On average, Model B with game concept has lower predictive accuracy than the Model A without game concept. Research limitations/implications – The paper provides practical implications for manager to frame effective KS policies and also suggests future studies to improve measurement. Originality/value – The values of this paper are: provide a methodology to determine whether individuals analyze decisions of others in making KS decisions; test the predictive ability of GT analysis in a KS modeling, and build a single‐instance two‐person game to characterize individuals' tacit KS behavior.