Consequences of knowledge processes in small businesses: the role of knowledge acquisition, dynamic capabilities, knowledge sharing and creativity

Creativity has found a leading strategic position in service industries, and companies have increasingly implemented knowledge management practices and dynamic capabilities in their organisations over the past decade. Realising the importance of knowledge acquisition from social media, knowledge sharing, and dynamic capabilities in employee creativity, we have made an attempt in this research to propose a conceptual framework. Drawing from the organisational behaviour literature, we hypothesise and test the relationship among knowledge acquisition, dynamic capabilities, knowledge sharing and employee creativity. We performed a structural equation model (SEM) test with maximum likelihood estimation to test the relationship among the research variables with a sample of 293 participants. The empirical results from the structural model suggest that knowledge acquisition positively influences both dynamic capabilities and knowledge sharing, and knowledge sharing has a direct effect on dynamic capabilities. Furthermore, dynamic capabilities and knowledge sharing were shown to be direct antecedents of employee creativity.