Understanding knowledge hiding in organizations: a bibliometric analysis of research trends between 2005 and 2022

Abstract

Purpose

Considering the increasing interest devoted to knowledge hiding in the workplace and academic research, the aim of this study is to analyze the existing literature on knowledge hiding to understand and trace how it has evolved over time and to uncover emerging areas for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used performance analysis and science mapping to analyze a sample of 243 studies published between 2005 and 2022. The study focused on analyzing the scientific productivity of articles, themes and authors.

Findings

The results of performance and science mapping analysis indicate that the concept of knowledge hiding behavior evolved recently and a majority of the studies have been conducted in the past decade. The study found that knowledge hiding is still in its infancy and has been studied in relation to other themes such as knowledge sharing, knowledge management, knowledge withholding and knowledge transfer. The study identified emerging themes, productive authors and countries, affiliations, collaboration network of authors, countries and institutions and co-occurrence of keywords.

Originality/value

Compared to the recent developments in the knowledge hiding behavior, the present study is more comprehensive in terms of the methods and databases used. The results of the study contribute to the existing literature on knowledge hiding and knowledge withholding.

Citation

Farooq, R. and Durst, S. (2023), "Understanding knowledge hiding in organizations: a bibliometric analysis of research trends between 2005 and 2022", Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-04-2023-0133