Transforming digital resources into project management performance: a knowledge-based view

Abstract

Purpose

The adoption of emerging information and communication technologies in construction project teams has engendered numerous virtual spaces, characterized by communication visibility and content persistence. As a result, the knowledge exchanged in these virtual spaces serves as a team’s digital resources. However, the extant literature mostly takes a process-based approach to examine the impact of knowledge sharing, thus failing to fully comprehend the process of converting digital resources into performance, resulting in a gap in the literature.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs team resource-based theory to construct a theoretical model and develop hypotheses. Specifically, knowledge integration capability and team efficacy are hypothesized as two types of critical capabilities that mediate the links between knowledge sharing (quantity and quality) in virtual spaces and management performance. Data from 128 middle and senior construction project managers were collected to test the proposed theoretical model.

Findings

The results suggest that relationships between knowledge sharing (quantity and quality) and project management performance are both mediated by knowledge integration capability. Moreover, team efficacy could only partially translate knowledge sharing quantity into performance and couldn’t transform knowledge sharing quality into performance. Besides, knowledge integration is found to strengthen the link between knowledge sharing quantity and performance but weaken the relationship between knowledge sharing quality and performance.

Originality/value

This study explores how knowledge shared in virtual spaces could be leveraged for improving management performance in construction project teams. The findings in this study enhance the understanding of knowledge sharing in digital environments and afford important insights into transforming digital resources into performance within construction project teams.

Citation

Jia, J., Jiang, S., Xiao, L. and Lu, F. (2024), "Transforming digital resources into project management performance: a knowledge-based view", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-01-2024-0038