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Purpose-The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of knowledge sharing (KS) on firm performance and the mediating role of intellectual capital (IC). Design/methodology/approach-A research model was developed based on prior KS and IC studies. A survey was administered to a sample of high technology firms in China and 228 usable responses were collected. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the research model. Findings-Tacit KS significantly was found to contribute to all three components of IC, namely human, structural and relational capital, while explicit KS only has a significant influence on human and structural capital. Human, structural and relational capital, enhance both operational and financial performance of firms. The effect of KS on firm performance is mediated by IC. Explicit KS has a greater effect on financial performance than operational performance, whereas tacit KS has a greater impact on operational performance than financial performance. Research limitations/implications-The sample of high technology firms in China might limit the generalization of the findings. Nonetheless, this study takes its lead from and extends prior research, thus providing a deepened understanding of the role of KS in organizational settings. Practical implications-The paper suggests that managers can enhance firm performance by enhancing their KS and IC. Managers can develop corresponding strategies based on the findings to achieve their specific performance goals. Originality/value-This is one of the first papers to examine how KS contributes to firm performance through the mediation of IC. It will add significant value for organizations trying to enhance their performance though KS practices.

IS researchers worldwide based on publication in MIS Quarterly, Information SystemsResearch, Journal of Management Information Systems, and Journal of the Association for Information Systems in the past five years .jiNgHua xiao is an associate professor of management information systems at the School of Business, Sun Yat-sen university, guangzhou, China. She received her Ph.D. in management science from Sun Yat-sen university. Her research focuses on the strategic role of IT within the organization and in interorganizational relationships. Her current areas of research are supply chain management systems and interorganizational IT governance. She has published over 20 papers in research journals in China. She received a grant from the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and has provided management consulting services for governments and enterprises.abstract: This paper examines two ways to create business value of information technology (BVIT): resource structuring and capability building. We develop a research model positing that IT resources and IT capabilities enhance a firm's performance by providing support to its competitive strategies and core competencies, and the strengths of these supports vary in accord with environmental dynamism. The model is empirically tested using data collected from 296 firms in China. It is found that IT resources generate more business effects in stable environments than in dynamic environments, while IT capabilities generate more business effects in dynamic environments than in stable environments. The results suggest that the BVIT creation mechanism in stable environments is primarily resource structuring while the mechanism in dynamic environments is primarily capability building.KeY Words aNd pHrases: business value of IT, capability building, competitive strategy, core competence, environmental dynamism, resource structuring.iNformatioN tecHNoLogY (it) Has become iNdispeNsabLe to modern organizations, and worldwide IT spending grew to a remarkable amount of $3.7 trillion in 2011 [27]. The business value of information technology (BVIT) has long been identified as one of the key issues for information systems (IS) academics and practitioners [43,53]. Despite some studies suggesting that IT has little or negative effects on firm performance [25,41], many have found a positive relationship between IT and firm performance [62]. To date, consensus has been reached that IT does create business value, and BVIT manifests in many different ways [43]. Yet the mechanisms of BVIT creation remains vaguely understood.When evaluating BVIT, prior research has primarily focused on IT resources and IT capabilities and investigated their effects on organizational performance. Firm performance is found to be enhanced by both IT resources [6,102] and IT capabilities [9,11,66,74,88,104]. Yet it is revealed that IT does not always lead to positive outcomes. For example, Kettinger and grover [41] evaluated longitudinal changes in performance measures of 30 firms recognized as exemplar IT ...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on the fit between intellectual capital (IC) and knowledge management (KM) strategy and its impacts on firm performance. Design/methodology/approach Based on the fit view, the authors posit that firms can enhance performance by aligning the structure of their IC with KM strategy, as reducing the extent to which their actual IC profile deviate from the “ideal” profile when implementing certain type of KM strategy. Using survey data collected from 328 high technology firms in China, the authors tested the research model. Findings The more fit a firm’s IC is to its KM strategic type, the better operational and financial performance it can achieve. Research limitations/implications The sample of high technology firms in China might limit the generalization of the findings. Nonetheless, this study is based on and extends prior research, which provides a deepened understanding of the role of IC-KM strategy fit in organizational settings. Practical implications The paper suggests that firms should adjust their IC according to KM strategy they employ. According to the findings, managers can selectively develop IC to achieve performance goals under certain type of KM strategy. Originality/value As one of the first studies to investigate the relationship among IC, KM strategy and firm performance in a holistic way, it indicates that the IC-KM strategy fit can be a novel explanation for performance variances through the alignment of knowledge-based capability and strategy.

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Contradictory views exist regarding whether business–information technology (IT) alignment enhances or reduces organizational agility, and no consensus has been achieved. To disentangle this puzzle, this study takes both the intellectual and social dimensions of IT alignment into account and investigates how they influence agility in opposite directions through distinct mechanisms. Based on survey data from 429 dyads of business and IT executives, we uncover that intellectual alignment impedes agility by increasing organizational inertia, while social alignment facilitates agility by enhancing emergent business–IT coordination. We also find that social alignment weakens the effect of intellectual alignment on organizational inertia. This paper fills a gap in the information systems (IS) literature by providing a theory-driven explanation of the alignment paradox, which makes a significant contribution to both IS research and practice. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0711 .

Cloud computing is one of the hottest topics in the field of information systems. In this paper, we conduct a citation and co-citation analysis on cloud computing research published in the 11-year period from 2004 to 2014. A total of 214 papers were selected from 20 leading academic journals in IS and management and 2 prominent international IS conferences for our analysis. In the citation analysis, we rely on the degree centrality and betweenness centrality to identify 41 important papers. In addition, our main path analysis reveals three development stages of cloud computing research: the incubation stage, the exploration stage, and the burgeoning stage. In the co-citation analysis, we employ a principal component factor analysis of the co-citation matrix to identify six major research themes: foundations, SaaS model, security and risk, literature review, adoption and impacts, and modeling. This is among the first studies to examine the knowledge structure of cloud computing research in the IS discipline by using evidence-based analysis methods. Recommendations for future research directions in cloud computing are provided based on our analysis.