Knowledge hiding, as an emerging novelty, has started to draw research attention since the last decade or so. Previous literature defined knowledge hiding as one’s deliberate attempt to withhold or conceal requested knowledge from another person and contended that three hiding strategies involved are playing dumb, evasive hiding, and rationalized hiding. Previous researchers found that knowledge hiding could be triggered by distrust, characteristics of the requested knowledge, and an intention to adapt to the social context. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reasons and motivations driving individuals to hide their knowledge in an academic context. A sequential mixed-method research design was adopted to help obtain a better understanding of knowledge hiding phenomena. A qualitative study was firstly conducted, which identified three primary independent constructs that may bring about knowledge hiding – interpersonal relationships, personal traits, sustaining personal knowledge advantage. Then the three constructs were further tested with a quantitative study. Results suggested that “personal traits” and “sustaining personal knowledge advantage” constructs significantly influenced knowledge hiding behavior, but the construct of “interpersonal relationships” had no significant influence on our sample’s knowledge hiding behavior.

Knowledge hiding, knowledge hoarding, and knowledge withholding have drawn increasing research attention in recent decades. Most researchers approached this topic by collecting quantitative data using questionnaires with self-reported scales. However, the underreporting nature of self-report measurement, particularly when studying sensitive and socially undesirable behavior, has been identified as a prominent limitation in extant research, which shows the urgent need for less biased and more innovative research methods. Scenarios incorporating critical incidents that represent a simulation of actual working conditions appear to be a relevant technique to address the above-mentioned shortcoming. Hence, an experimental design, adopting meticulously crafted scenarios, is worth investigating. This paper presents the value of using serious games/simulations to collect data related to knowledge hiding behaviors as well as the design stages of a knowledge hiding serious game

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