Knowledge hiding and social exchange theory: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The literature on the antecedents and consequences of knowledge hiding remains fragmented, limiting its practical applications. Social exchange theory (SET), one of the most widely adopted sociological frameworks, offers unique insights into the dynamics of knowledge hiding. This study synthesizes the application of SET in analyzing the nomological framework of knowledge hiding through a systematic literature review and meta-analysis. A meta-analysis was conducted based on the random-effects model and the meta-analytic structural equation modeling method, incorporating 66 primary studies with a total of 20,603 participants. Additionally, we examined the mediating role of knowledge hiding by linking key antecedents and consequences. Moreover, an exploratory analysis was conducted to investigate the moderating effects of national culture and research methodology, providing evidence to justify the true heterogeneity in the pairwise relationships between knowledge hiding and its antecedents. The research results generally support most pairwise relationships between knowledge hiding and its correlates, which were theoretically developed based on SET. This study is the first attempt to explore the explanatory power of SET in analyzing the knowledge-hiding phenomenon, and whether the establishment of a knowledge exchange loop contributes to a deeper understanding of this dyadic construct.