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This paper aims to investigate the feasibility of a systematic Lean Six Sigma (LSS) education through the curriculum of business schools to respond to the existing gap between the graduate’s expectation of employability and skill requirements by the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A UK business school has been used as a case study to conduct extensive module and programme review followed by a semi-structured interview with potentially suitable core and programme-specific module tutors and comparative analysis.

The result revealed a high potential of the existing modules in the business schools equivalent to the private sector training providers to increase the level of LSS problem-solving knowledge and skill for all graduates and improve their employability and productivity for the SMEs.

The result of this study highlights the role of LSS to reduce the knowledge and skill gap between the business schools as the source of the explicit knowledge, graduates as the knowledge and skill bearer and SMEs as the knowledge and skill users.

The main purpose of the paper is to assess and suggest the ways and means to enhance a collaborative knowledge sharing culture in academic institutions, with special reference to information technology (IT)‐related education in the Management Faculty of the University of Pune.

The research is descriptive and empirical in nature because the primary data were collected using the survey method through fact finding techniques such as questionnaire and interview. The main purpose of this research is to obtain information concerning the current status of the phenomena to describe “what exists” with respect to variables or conditions in a situation.

The sustainability of any industry is closely linked to the manpower talent made available by the academic institutions. Therefore in order to service the needs of the industry in tune with rapidly changing trends, academic institutions have to implement innovative learning systems and be able to match up to the expectations of the industry for knowledge support. Collaborative knowledge sharing links the learning and knowledge processes to enhance organizational learning. The knowledge grows more with communication, sharing of ideas and transfer of knowledge through face‐to‐face communication, discussions, faculty development programs, industry‐institute interactions. Academic institutions should align their human resource strategies, practices and processes in such a way that collaborative knowledge sharing becomes a part of the work culture and overcome the barriers to knowledge sharing. There is need to develop systems that can recognize and reward the efforts of employees who share their knowledge. This can empower collaborative knowledge sharing culture in an academic institute.

In the same context as the practical implications of the paper, it is also appropriate and important to study further how, and to what extent collaborative knowledge improves the performance of the academic institutes. Also, the impact of collaborative knowledge sharing on the quality of higher education.

The recommendations in this paper focus on factors influencing collaborative knowledge sharing culture and also the practices of collaborative knowledge sharing to enhance organizational learning in an academic institute.

This paper contributes original empirical data on the collaborative knowledge sharing strategy to enhance organizational learning.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among transformational leadership, knowledge sharing climate and behavior, interpersonal trust and organizational learning.

Data from 209 participants from a manufacturing company in Korea were analyzed using the structural equation modeling method.

The findings of the study indicated that transformational leadership directly affected the knowledge sharing climate and behavior, interpersonal trust and organizational learning of an organization. Transformational leadership also indirectly affected organizational learning through knowledge climate and behavior, and interpersonal trust. In addition, a knowledge sharing climate directly affected interpersonal trust and knowledge sharing behavior and indirectly affected organizational learning through interpersonal trust and knowledge behavior. Interpersonal trust directly affected knowledge sharing behavior and indirectly affected organizational learning through knowledge sharing behavior. Finally, knowledge sharing behavior positively affected organizational learning.

The results highlight the important role of transformational leadership to enhance the knowledge sharing climate and behavior of employees, interpersonal trust and organizational learning. This study also indicated that transformational leadership, interpersonal trust and knowledge sharing behavior are antecedents of organizational learning.

The study’s findings could motivate practitioners to place more emphasis on leadership support, knowledge sharing and organizational learning in the manufacturing sector.

The study provided diverse paths indicating how transformational leadership can impact organizational learning by examining both the direct and indirect paths between transformational leadership, multiple mediators and organizational learning. It also suggested a research framework for supporting transformational leadership, knowledge sharing and organizational learning, as well as their relationships by examining the three variables in one research model.

This study examined the relationships among transformational leadership, organizational climate, employees' knowledge-sharing behavior and organizational learning.

Data were collected from 282 responses from multiple companies in South Korea. Descriptive statistics and correlations were provided. The structural equation modeling was primarily used to test the proposed hypotheses and model comparisons.

The results indicated direct effects of transformational leadership on organizational climate, knowledge-sharing and organizational learning. In addition, organizational climate was positively related to knowledge-sharing behavior. Finally, knowledge-sharing behavior was found to affect organizational learning and to be a mediator in linking transformational leadership and organizational learning.

This study contributes to the literature on the role of leader’s support to enhance employees' outcomes related to knowledge and learning. By investing different antecedents of organizational learning, this study will help scholars and professionals pay more attention to organizational learning, its process and outcomes, which can promote organizational effectiveness and next outcomes from organizational learning.

Organizations need to pay continuous attention to maintaining and strengthening employees’ knowledge-sharing behavior and learning, which is positively influenced by organizational efforts (i.e. leader’s support and supportive organizational climate).

The significance of this study is that the findings add to the academic work on organizational learning by empirically examining how leadership and organizational climate factors influence knowledge and learning outcomes and through which mechanisms.

This paper aims to investigate the roles of employees’ perceived knowledge sharing and trust on organizational learning.

The authors examined the proposed hypotheses by using survey data from 228 responses collected from an IT services company.

The authors found that a knowledge sharing culture was positively related to interpersonal trust, knowledge sharing behavior and organizational learning. Employees’ perceived trust among people had a positive effect on knowledge sharing behavior and organizational learning. Knowledge sharing behavior was also positively related to organizational learning. In addition, interpersonal trust and knowledge sharing behavior played mediating roles in linking knowledge sharing culture and organizational learning.

This study provides empirical support for the mediating role of interpersonal trust and knowledge sharing behavior on the link between knowledge sharing culture and organizational learning.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate digital knowledge sharing (KS) and social learning (SL) of geographically dispersed employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The method is qualitative case study action research within a leading global provider of comprehensive logistics and transportation solutions; 22 employees from various geographically dispersed entities were selected through purposive sampling. Employees took part in interviews to explore their perspectives on and experiences with digital KS and SL.

Findings first show that successful digital KS and SL hinges on the motivation, intentions, attitude and behaviour of employees to share and co-create knowledge embedded in supportive KS culture and climate. Second, findings show that the implementation of knowledge sharing platforms customised to the needs and preferences of employees within the case study organisation facilitated KS and SL, which in turn aided the development of individual and organisational capability, agility and adaptability required in the contemporary, digital knowledge economy, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This research was a single case study of an organisation within one business sector, namely logistics, encompassing a small sample of 22 employees. Hence, this study does not permit statistical generalisation but only permits internal generalisation.

Forming and sustaining networks of influencers, i.e. employees who are role models of digital KS and SL, who serve as strong advocates and ambassadors for instilling a KS culture and climate within the organisation have a powerful influence on evoking digital KS and SL organisation-wide.

The contribution of this paper is that it presents an evidence-based “Digital Knowledge Sharing and Social Learning model” depicting the factors that influence digital KS and SL, the benefits and outcomes. This model aids researchers and practitioners to better understand the dynamics of digital KS and SL between organisational members in a cross-cultural business environment during times of crises.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of antecedent factors on collaborative technologies usage among academic researchers in Malaysian research universities.

Data analysis was conducted on data collected from 156 academic researchers from five Malaysian research universities. This study employed an extensive quantitative approach of a structural equation modeling method to evaluate the research model and to test the hypotheses.

The main findings of this study are that personal innovativeness, task-technology fit, and perceived peer usage are significant predictors of individual usage of collaborative technologies; perceived managerial support and subjective norm were found not to be significant predictors to perceived usefulness and individual usage; and perceived usefulness is a significant mediator to individual usage in that it had fully mediated personal innovativeness whereas partially mediated peer usage.

The results provide practical insights into how the Malaysian higher education sector and other research organizations of not-for-profit structure could enhance their collaborative technologies usage.

This research is perhaps the first that concentrates on collaborative technologies usage in Malaysian research universities.

Lack of individual awareness of knowledge sharing practices to prevent identity theft is a significant issue for online retail organisations (OROs). Agile learning processes and sharing of knowledge is essential, but the lack of relevant training inhibits these processes within the online industry. This study aims to identify the inhibiting factors in agile learning and knowledge sharing process with recommendations for best practice for organisations and staff to effectively share knowledge on identity theft prevention.

Three qualitative case studies were undertaken in OROs in the UK. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, internal documents and related external material. The data were analysed using a thematic analysis method.

The findings identified that individual staff members within OROs from the information security and fraud prevention departments often share their knowledge as a community. However, there is no formal knowledge sharing process or any related training facilitating this exchange. There is a need for agile learning environment in OROs of the UK.

The study offers both theoretical and practical contributions to the extant literature of agile learning of knowledge sharing to prevent identity theft in OROs. Existing learning opportunities are not being used to enhance the knowledge of individuals, and OROs need to increase the skills and trust of their staff to share knowledge efficiently. This study identifies the systemic weaknesses inherent in the process of knowledge sharing and existing training provision within OROs. It provides ORO managers with practical guidelines in facilitating trust between individuals and developing appropriate training systems to educate staff on sharing organisational knowledge. This study contributes by extending the knowledge sharing framework proposed by Chong et al. (2011) for enhanced individual knowledge sharing processes to prevent identity theft within OROs. It also identifies OROs’ weaknesses in knowledge sharing learning processes for theft prevention and offers prevention guidelines and recommendations for developing effective agile learning environments.

Technology makes knowledge management easier. Knowledge sharing is essential for organizational development. Job satisfaction fosters knowledge sharing. Hence, this study aims to develop an understanding of the mutual relationship between knowledge sharing and job satisfaction when both are predicted by information technology (IT)-competency dimensions such as IT-operations, IT-knowledge and IT-infrastructure in the context of company performance.

The results were achieved based on the examination of 910 Polish knowledge workers with different roles and experiences across various sectors. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling method.

The findings suggest that the company’s IT-competency drives job satisfaction and knowledge sharing more strongly for IT industry knowledge workers than for other industries. Also, a stronger mediation function of knowledge sharing and job satisfaction is observed for IT-operations when the IT industry is controlled.

The main value of the study is the empirical evidence that the influence of a particular IT-competency dimension varies for industries when it comes to job satisfaction and knowledge sharing processes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how a foreign subsidiary operates in emerging markets and integrates market orientation with organizational learning to achieve a competitive lead. It is an attempt to fill an evident gap in the literature of integrating organizational learning into a market-oriented competitive strategy through using a four-step collective learning cycle at General Motors Egypt (GME).

The paper adopts a qualitative case study methodology to thoroughly examine the viewpoints of 90 respondents via in-depth and unstructured interviews with both managers and employees working in a variety of divisions inside GME. An integrative qualitative data analysis approach is used to explore, synthesize, interpret and derive relationships resulting from the collected data.

This work advances the theory of organizational learning by testing the theme of collective learning cycle in a real work setting. It presents a real example of aligning market orientation into a collective learning cycle directed toward achieving competitive advantages.

This study provides scholars and practitioners alike with a real scenario on how and why a four-step organizational learning cycle functions as a building block to generate a competitive advantage. It also discusses the elements of collective learning that are not captured by the four-step collective learning cycle. Factors facilitating market-based organizational learning are also explored. However, the results generated are contingent on the investigated case study circumstances, which are limited in generalizability.

The paper addresses a set of directions through which auto assembly firms leverage both collective learning practices and knowledge-driven strategy to gain competitive advantages. The GME paradigm indicates how a firm can use collective learning not only to respond to an internal need for change but also to react to external market forces and constraints.

This study is the first of its kind to investigate the value of the cyclic learning concept from a strategic viewpoint in a multinational organizational context. It enriches the primarily practitioner literature on aligning collective learning into strategy with rich empirical examination of the learning practices of a leading foreign subsidiary. It resolves a gap in the literature regarding how organizational learning and knowledge management processes are aligned to market-oriented competitive strategy. The paper draws a number of critical research issues that call for refinement of the organizational learning cycle theory.