Purpose - Knowledge sharing, the most important process in knowledge management, enables knowledge-intensive organizations to foster innovations and to gain competitiveness. Universities, the best contemporary embodiments of knowledge-intensive organizations, nowadays face fiercer competition in the changing world. Knowledge sharing is the key for academic departments to gain competitive advantages through innovation. However, limited studies examined the relationships between top management support, knowledge sharing and affiliation and trust. Based on the literature review, this study developed a research model which aims to examine the relationship between top management support and knowledge sharing, and the mediating role played by affiliation and trust.Design/methodology/approach - A questionnaire survey was conducted in eight universities in Hong Kong. Data gathered from 109 professoriate staff (including chairs, professors and [research] associate/assistant professors) were used to test the four hypotheses in the research model with partial least squares structural equation modeling.Findings - The results showed that top management support has a positive impact on affiliation and trust, and that affiliation and trust also have a positive impact on knowledge sharing. However, this study showed an insignificant linkage between top management support and knowledge sharing. Therefore, this study confirmed the mediating role played by affiliation and trust.Practical implications - Based on the results, this study provided recommendations on how academic management and knowledge management consultants increase the faculty members’ affiliation and trust, for instance, mentoring, performance appraisal system, social interactions and communication pathways.Originality/value - The findings of this study contribute to the literature in two ways. First, affiliation and trust are two interplayed elements of team climate that should be considered together. Second, this study

Purpose - The objective of this study is to investigate the factors of two sub-processes – knowledge donating and knowledge collecting – of knowledge sharing in Hong Kong higher education context. This study examines the individual factors, organizational factors and technology factor of knowledge sharing. Individual factors include enjoyment in helping others and knowledge self-efficacy while organizational factors refer to the top management support, organizational rewards and organizational culture. The use of technology system is proposed to be the technology factor.Design/methodology/approach - Based on the literature review, this study develops a structural model representing the impact of six latent variables on knowledge donating and knowledge collecting processes Data from a questionnaire survey of 166 respondents from academics from Hong Kong higher education sector was used to analyze the model. PLS-SEM was adopted in this study.Findings - The result of the data analysis suggests enjoyment in helping others has a positive impact on both knowledge donating and knowledge collecting. For organizational factors, a trust and collaborative culture enhance both the sub-processes. The technology factor only contributes to the knowledge donating process. Several practical implications are provided to high education leaders, for instance, by establishing a trust and collaborative environment, academics are more eager to donate and collect knowledge.Originality/value - This paper provides insights for researchers to further understand how individual, organizational and technology factors affect two sub-processes of knowledge sharing. On the practical side, this study validated several critical factors to successful knowledge donation and knowledge collection. Copyright © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited.