wang et al. make both an empirical and conceptual to the knowledge-based view of the firm. they do this by developing hypotheses that address some significant gaps in knowledge and then testing them empirically. the gap in knowledge they address is the extent to which different governance mechanisms motivate worker to contribute to the development of organization-specific knowledge resources. this is neglected topic as the literature on the resource/knowledge-based view of the firm typically doesn't question or address the issue of employee motivation, generally assuming that such motivation is un problematic.
wang et al. argue that, in line with the knowledge-based view of the firm, the development of firm-specific knowledge is likely to benefit the firm. future,they argue that the development of such knowledge does not happen automatically,and is dependent on the activity of key organizational employees. however, they argue that worker may not necessarily be willing to invest the effort necessary to development this knowledge. this is because contributing to the development to firm-specific resources does little to improve the marketability of worker in external labour markets, as the firm-specific knowledge they are contributing to the development of has limited relevance and transferability beyond the firm. the main way in which employees can benefit from the development of such knowledge is via being rewarded by their employer. if workers have concerns regarding whether they will be adequately rewarded by their employer for such effort they may be unwilling to contribute to the development of firm-specific knowledge resources. thus,for firms to ensure that their workers are willing to contribute to the development of such resources,they need to motivate them to do so. wang et al. investigate the extent to which two different governance mechanisms were able to provide this motivation.