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Introduction
According to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), knowledge can be described as the most important and valuable organizational resource, which contributes to sustainable competitive advantage, and knowledge management is pivotal to organizational success and long-range sustainability. Many studies have shown that knowledge sharing has become the most important part and stage of knowledge management (Issa and Haddad, 2008). Therefore, it is not a big deal that all kinds of knowledge management systems have been applied to promote knowledge sharing among employees (Cabrera et al., 2006). However, researchers have found that the main obstacle to knowledge management processes resides in people rather than in systems or technologies (Earl, 2001; Cabrera et al., 2006). Knowledge sharing includes professional knowledge, unique skills, expertise and information sharing, and individuals may need to spend more time and energy to participate in these activities (Lee et al., 2018), which requires employees to assume higher costs or risks than other discretionary behaviors. In addition, individuals may decide not to share valuable knowledge with others in order to maintain their competitive edge (Cabrera and Cabrera, 2005). Therefore, promoting knowledge sharing can be especially challenging within organization unless individuals believe that knowledge sharing will bring greater benefits (Kim et al., 2015). So, at present, many researchers and business managers pay attention to how to improve the knowledge sharing performance among employees.
In the construction industry, various project management organizations including construction enterprises, design enterprises, project management companies, real estate companies, engineering consulting enterprises, etc., belong to knowledge-intensive organizations which are highly dependent on the skills and expertise of project members who are mainly in charge of engineering technology and project management (Ni et al., 2018; Wen and Qiang, 2016). Modern construction projects have become more complex, dynamic and interactive situations (Teerajetgul and Charoenngam, 2006). A survey of construction company CEOs suggests that knowledge is deemed as the most critical strategic asset (Fong and Chu, 2006). Experience and lessons accumulated from one project can be referenced and applied on other projects, and knowledge sharing among project members can avoid similar mistakes, improve work efficiency and reduce failure risks (Ni et al., 2018). Therefore, in order to cope with complex tasks project members need to share knowledge and expertise within...