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This paper reports the results of a qualitative study of motivation and barriers to employee participation in virtual knowledge‐sharing communities of practice at Caterpillar Inc., a Fortune 100, multinational corporation. The study indicates that, when employees view knowledge as a public good belonging to the whole organization, knowledge flows easily. However, even when individuals give the highest priority to the interests of the organization and of their community, they tend to shy away from contributing knowledge for a variety of reasons. Specifically, employees hesitate to contribute out of fear of criticism, or of misleading the community members (not being sure that their contributions are important, or completely accurate, or relevant to a specific discussion). To remove the identified barriers, there is a need for developing various types of trust, ranging from the knowledge‐based to the institution‐based trust. Future research directions and implications for KM practitioners are formulated.

The purpose of this study is to explore cultural factors influencing knowledge sharing strategies in virtual communities of practice.

A qualitative research design was employed. Data collection was based on in‐depth interviews. The authors assumed that such factors as degree of collectivism, competitiveness, the importance of saving face, in‐group orientation, attention paid to power and hierarchy, and culture‐specific preferences for communication modes, would explain differences in knowledge seeking and sharing patterns.

The results showed that these factors had different levels of importance among employees in the three participating countries. The issue of saving face was less important than expected in China. Modesty requirements as well as a high degree of competitiveness among employees were found to be serious barriers to information sharing in China, but not in Russia and Brazil. Perceived differences in power and hierarchy seemed to be less critical in all three countries than initially assumed.

Since this study was conducted among the online community members of Caterpillar Inc., the results could be affected by factors unique to this specific case. Thus, future research should investigate the influence of other factors such as the organizational culture, or occupational groups on knowledge sharing strategies.

Before any introduction of country‐specific knowledge sharing systems, a cultural needs assessment should be conducted.

The impact of national culture factors on knowledge sharing has been largely neglected in the literature, and the findings will assist knowledge managers charged with the design of flexible knowledge management systems.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of factors associated with e‐learning, particularly computer attitudes and usability, on transfer of training in workplace e‐learning courses.

This study relied on quantitative data obtained from four online survey questionnaires. The sample of this study was 47 learners who took either one soft‐skill e‐learning course or one hard‐skill e‐learning course in a selected company and their supervisors.

The results demonstrated that learners' computer attitudes impact their perception of the usability of the e‐learning courses, and that this perception influences the degree of their transfer of training. The results imply that when learners come to an e‐learning class with positive attitudes toward computers, they feel the e‐learning course system to be more satisfactory and efficient, and accordingly they can better transfer what they have learned to job performance.

The sample of this study is limited. Further research studies with various learners should be conducted. Additionally, the measure of transfer merely relied on their perception of it. Further studies should give more attention to the multifaceted measures of the actual transfer. Finally, further research should be conducted to examine other general factors pertaining to the transfer of training in e‐learning settings in addition to computer attitudes and usability.

The study expands the knowledge base regarding transfer of training by focusing on e‐learning, which is rapidly growing and receiving great attention in the workplace, and thus contributes to the establishment of a more comprehensive model of transfer of training.

Knowledge management (KM) has long been a central concern for multinational manufacturing company Caterpillar Inc, whose competitive advantage depends on the experience of its employees – especially mechanical, electrical and chemical engineers, designers, new‐product‐development personnel, and equipment and material testers.

Since 1945, there have been significant changes in the pattern of Indian overseas immigration. Australia has become a popular destination for Indians, particularly skilled immigrants, during this time. Until the 1950s, Australia maintained a strict ‘White Australia’ immigration policy, which was eased by a formal agreement to favour immigrants from select European nations, particularly the United Kingdom. The policy’s original aim was to increase the population for defence purposes. Its goal in the 1950s and 1960s was to bring in workers to help with Australia’s industrial development. It wasn’t until the 1970s that Australia began to see the benefits of a multicultural immigration policy, a mostly bipartisan approach that has helped Australia’s economy grow and its society become one of the world’s most progressive. By the early 1990s, the immigration policy had become more flexible, incorporating humanitarian, social, and economic goals. Over the previous two decades, the policy has placed a strong focus on skilled immigration. As a result, Australia now has a genuinely global immigration policy that promotes a culturally diversified and socially united society. In Australia, the pattern of immigration has changed dramatically, and the Indian population is rapidly growing. Even though most of the research on cultural diversity in Australia has centred on unskilled foreign labour, many immigrants hold management positions. On a daily basis, however, several of them face prejudice, discrimination, and racism.

Learning capability improves knowledge resources fosters innovative capabilities and firm competitiveness. The study aims to examine the human resource management (HRM) practice and employee creativity relationship using organizational learning capability (OLC) as a mediating variable.

Data were collected from 67 small-sized and 96 medium-sized firms. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to establish construct validity and reliability. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the proposed model and hypotheses.

The results show that performance appraisal and employee creativity were positively related. Employee participation and employee creativity were positively related. Compensation and employee creativity were nonsignificantly related. OLC mediates the performance appraisal and employee creativity relationship. Similarly, OLC mediates the employee participation and employee creativity relationship. However, OLC did not mediate the compensation and employee creativity relationship.

Due to the research’s SME focus and cross-sectional data, the finding’s generalizability will be constrained.

The findings of the study would be useful to policymakers, stakeholders and management of SMEs in developing a supportive learning climate that promotes experiential and continuous learning cultures to ensure strategic capabilities, sustainable competitive advantage and innovativeness.

The study contributes to the extant literature on OLC, HRM practices and employee creativity by empirically evidencing that OLC mediates the performance appraisal, employee participation and employee creativity relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how members of an online alcohol reduction community learn, construct and engage in alcohol reduction consumption consistencies.

Blog data from 15 individuals participating in the online community of Hello Sunday Morning were collected and analysed. Informants also participated in a series of in-depth interviews to gain a self-reflective perspective of alcohol reduction action, activities and interactions.

The findings indicate learning of new alcohol reduction consumption consistencies occurs through three modes or learning infrastructures: engagement, imagination and alignment, enabling a collective sense of connection in the creation of new alcohol-related rituals and traditions, competency of practices and transmission of values and norms beyond the community.

The results underscore the need for social marketers to recognise learning of alcohol reduction behaviour is continually negotiated and dynamically engendered through socially reproduced conditions, responses and relationships.

This study contributes to the transformational potential of social marketing situating behaviour change as a social interaction between actors within a dynamic market system.

The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that impact knowledge transfer from the parent corporation to subsidiaries when there are differences in the national culture of the parent corporation and the subsidiary. Transferring knowledge can be especially difficult when the source and recipient do not share common beliefs, assumptions and cultural norms. Therefore, this study examines how trust, cultural alignment, and openness to diversity influence the effectiveness of knowledge transfer from the HQ to the employees in the subsidiary.

Specifically, the study examines knowledge transfer between the headquarters of a multinational corporation in Norway and its Vietnamese subsidiaries, making use of a survey administered to all 70 employees in the Vietnamese subsidiaries.

The results show that individual's trust of the HQ and their openness to diversity are key factors influencing local employees' ability to learn and obtain knowledge from foreign HQ. The extent to which there is alignment between the organization's corporate culture and the individual's cultural values, on the other hand, appear to make little difference to knowledge transfer from the HQ.

This paper contributes to the literature in cross border knowledge transfer, showing that due to geographical distance or cultural differences between the HQ and the subsidiary, the cultivation of trust and openness to diversity on the part of local employees is critical for knowledge transfer.

The paper also contributes by examining knowledge transfer in an international context.