Abstract
Most knowledge hiding studies focus on its dark side. In contrast, we theorize the potential positive effect of rationalized knowledge hiding in the context of entrepreneurial firms’ new product development (NPD) speed. We extended and integrated theoretical perspectives of rationalized knowledge hiding and trust in theorizing that rationalized knowledge hiding accelerates NPD—a component considered critical to firm survival and growth. We developed and analyzed two datasets on the founder CEOs and the founder CTOs of 279 high-technology entrepreneurial firms in China to test this assumption. Empirical results suggest that CTOs’ rationalized knowledge hiding from CEOs accelerates these firms’ NPD. Further, such acceleration is slower (faster) when CEOs’ affective (cognitive) trust in CTOs is higher. Overall, we theorize that rationalized knowledge hiding has a positive impact on entrepreneurial firms’ NPD. The study offers a unique contribution to understanding the link between knowledge hiding and NPD, and practical implications for entrepreneurial firms.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 431-439 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Journal of Business Research |
| Volume | 136 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion, the first two authors should be regarded as joint First Authors (equal contribution). This work is partly supported by VC Research (VCR 0000121) for Prof. Chang.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Inc.