Analysis of The Willingness influence factors

Willingness to share is another key component in sharing knowledge. Most of the influences for willingness come from outside attributes from organization, individual and trust. In addition, some influence was found to come from tools and individual factors. As most of the influences to willingness come from out-side factors the analysis in the original influence factors also applies here. In this research the only internal attribute for willingness was sharing outside of group. This was mentioned by few Western interviewees, who stated that in their experiences there were more knowledge silos in Japanese organizations than in Western organizations. This factor was also mentioned in regards to

inter-organizational sharing, i.e. knowledge that was supposed to be passed on to another organization had not been shared outside of the organization. Rea-sons for this could be due to organizational rules on sharing (Lindner and Wald, 2011) or differences in communication styles (Bhagat et al., 2002) but also based on cultural factors. Trust in the other organization, and in other individual, increases the willingness to share even critical knowledge as suggested by Uso-ro et al. (2007). Another factor influencing willingness to sharing knowledge is cultural. As suggested by Möller and Svahn (2004) Bhagat et al. (2002) com-municating across cultural and hierarchical barriers can have an effect on how much is shared and with whom is it shared with. In addition to organizational factors, this can be one factor explaining the existence of the knowledge silos especially in the international context.

As mentioned in the analysis section for tools, ease of use and support for communication are important. Ease of use meaning sharing can be done with-out breaking the workflow makes individuals more willing to share as was stated by one Western academic. The increased interaction between employees and organizations increases trust, which makes the affected parties more will-ing to share their knowledge. The strength of the influence on willwill-ingness to share coming from tools is, however, most likely smaller than the influence of other influence factors.

Individual factors also have some impact on willingness to share. As shown by Lin (2007) one reason for willingness to share is getting enjoyment from helping others, which strengthen the relationship between the individuals.

A Japanese academic also mentioned this reasoning. However, as described in the chapter analyzing the individual influence factors, language skills and cul-tural distance can either improve this interaction or hinder it. If the individual´s language skills are not good enough then embarrassment over language skills has a negative effect on willingness to share (Ford and Chan, 2003). Also a big difference in cultures can have a negative effect on sharing (Möller and Svahn, 2004) as there will be differences in communication styles and language used, which will be needed to overcome before a more effective knowledge transfer relationship is established. Once again trust in other people and organizations can help to overcome most negative effects that stem in individual factors. Es-pecially passion for sharing knowledge can help overcome any barriers that might hinder willingness to share (Usoro et al., 2007).

Innovation processes also gains from individual willingness to share. Most of the influence for willingness comes from the other influence factors, which means that the discussions on innovation processes in those sections also apply here. In the knowledge sharing level, positive influences to willingness vie trust increase the amount and quality of the knowledge shared (Usoro et al., 2007). In the innovation process level, increases in willingness to share knowledge can help organizations to improve their innovation capability (Lin, 2007). As ence of sharing outside of group is the only attribute within factors that influ-ence willingness, it means that individuals and organizations involved in inno-vation processes also need to consider its effects on the innoinno-vation process. In fact, it could be argued that the differences in the styles of Open Innovation be-tween Japan and the Western countries most likely has some of its roots in this

attribute. Western Open Innovation focuses on having a central market place for innovations where as Japanese Open Innovation mostly focuses on using close relationships with frequently collaborated organizations (Maegawa and Miyamoto, 2008). This indicates that Japanese organizations more likely orate with other Japanese organizations whereas Western organizations collab-orate with organizations that have the specific knowledge needed. From a Jap-anese perspective this can be seen as sharing within the same group. Innovation processes combining internal capabilities and openness to sharing knowledge can help to improve innovation performance of the organization (Caloghirou et al., 2004). Hence, influencing willingness through organizational and individual factors can help sharing outside of the group, which in turn can have a positive effect on both

Overall, it can be said that the link between trust and willingness and or-ganization and willingness are the most important ones out of all the links. In-creases in trust most likely have a positive effect on both the quality and quanti-ty of shared knowledge. Organizations can influence trust, which in turn influ-ences willingness to share. In addition, organizations themselves can influence willingness to share directly via incentive usage. Therefore, practitioners should concentrate on improving antecedes of willingness in order to increase willing-ness. The advices given in the analysis of the trust influence factors are a good place to start.