Abstract: A growing body of studies has focused on knowledge-sharing behavior, especially on the factors that affect enterprise staffs’ knowledge sharing. Some Western researchers have compiled questionnaires on knowledge-sharing behavior with different dimensions; however, there are few coherent questionnaires that can be used. Moreover, little empirical research has been conducted on this topic in China. Chinese culture is considerably different from Western culture, and it is unknown whether the same questionnaire that is used in the Western context can be used in the Chinese context. In this study, the structure of enterprise staffs’ knowledge-sharing behavior was explored in China, and the Enterprise Staffs’ Knowledge-Sharing Behavior Questionnaire (ESKSBQ) was developed.
First, by the content analysis of data collected from 52 staffs (using structured interviews) and from 217 staffs (using open-ended questionnaires) from various enterprises, the primary ESKSBQ was established in China. Then, data collected from a diverse sample of 407 staffs was used to explore the primary ESKSBQ’s reliability and validity by exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Lastly, using item analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), data from another sample of 428 staffs was used to confirm the validity and reliability of the formal ESKSBQ.
The results indicated that enterprise staffs’ knowledge-sharing behavior contains three dimensions in the Chinese context; these dimensions are the quality of sharing, cooperative spirit, and the behavior of active participation. The validity of the formal ESKSBQ was acceptable with the factor loading of each item above 0.55. The Cronbach α coefficients of the three factors were 0.85, 0.82, and 0.81, respectively. The Cronbach α coefficient of the entire ESKSBQ was 0.83.
The factors that constitute staffs’ knowledge-sharing behavior vary from culture to culture. This study found that three dimensions, namely, the quality of sharing, cooperative spirit, and the behavior of active participation, constitute Chinese staffs’ knowledge-sharing behaviors, which are different from the dimensions of the knowledge-sharing behavior of Western staffs. Based on these three dimensions, the ESKSBQ in China has been found to have suitable reliability and high validity

Key words: staffs’ knowledge-sharing behavior, quality of knowledge sharing, cooperative spirit, behavior of taking part actively, confirmatory factor analysis