Impact of Intercultural Awareness on Innovation Capability in Multinational Organizations: Mediating Roles of Knowledge Sharing Motivations

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of intercultural awareness on knowledge sharing motivations and the mediation effects of knowledge sharing motivations between intercultural awareness and innovation capability. The results empirically proved that intercultural awareness has a significant positive influence on both trust and reciprocity-based knowledge sharing motivations. Results also showed that both trust-based and reciprocity-based knowledge sharing has a significant positive influence on innovation capability. The further analysis revealed that the relationship between intercultural awareness and innovation capability is mediated by the trust-based knowledge sharing motivation. However empirical evidence about the mediating role of reciprocity-based knowledge sharing between the intercultural awareness and innovation capability was not found. Overall, representing the first attempt, this paper contributes to the literature by discovering relationships among intercultural awareness, knowledge sharing, and innovation capability, as well as it may assist organizations to design more effective expatriate training programs.