The positive impact of knowledge management on innovation performance is no longer a mystery. However, the moderating role of knowledge hoarding remains undisclosed. There-fore, the present study aims to explore the moderating role of knowledge hoarding on the ef-fect of knowledge management on innovation performance. On the ground of its design as a descriptive research, a questionnaire-based survey was developed, validated, and administered to a sample of 314 managers chosen from commerce and service organizations. Using multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), the results indicated that knowledge management processes (knowledge acquisition, dissemination, storage, sharing and application) exerted significant effects on innovation performance. Moreover, Knowledge hoarding exerted a significant negative effect on innovation performance. However, the re-sults indicate that knowledge hoarding did not moderate the effect of knowledge management processes on innovation performance. This finding can be explained by the fact that, despite the negative impact of knowledge hoarding on innovation performance, this effect did not af-fect the relationship between knowledge management processes and innovation performance and this may be due to the nature of knowledge hoarded by employees in terms of relevance and scarcity. In the light of these findings, the study recommends that it is necessary to determine whether employees hoard knowledge, and distinguish how important this knowledge is for innovation performance. In fact, this is the contribution of the current study to knowledge management literature.

The main purpose of this study is to present a framework on the construct, knowledge hoarding by investigating and distinguishing it from related concepts such as knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding. Furthermore, it aims to strengthen our understanding of knowledge hoarding by defining the construct in detail while seeking answers to why employees hoard their knowledge. The present study contains a discussion of related research on knowledge hoarding and its implications for organizations, managers and employees. By integrating research from the fields of knowledge man-agement, human resources management and organizational behavior, this paper attempts to clarify a number of issues about this concept and aims to offer a factual report on what research has to say about it. Knowledge is not an individual, but an organizational asset. In today’s business environ-ment, hoarding knowledge erodes one’s power rather than constituting a source of power. In order to remain competitive in the future, organizations will need to abandon their ideas of information hoarding and embrace knowledge management. Downsizing in organizations and the potential loss of employment due to the global economic crisis alerts the managers to be sensitive to the reasons why the individuals avoid sharing their knowledge. The managerial level should attempt to break the hoarding cycle and create new models for interaction and knowledge sharing. It is important to examine why some employees would sometimes prefer to keep knowledge to themselves. Thus, the present study seeks an answer to that area of under-investigated research.