Hospitality employee knowledge-sharing behaviors in the relationship between goal orientations and service innovative behavior

• We investigate the impacts of learning goal orientation (LGO) and performance goal orientation (PGO) on the knowledge collecting (KC) and knowledge donating (KD).
• We also examine the effects of KC and KD on the employee service innovative behavior (ESIB) in hotels.
• The positive relationship between LGO and KC was stronger than that of the relationship between LGO and KD.
• The negative relationship between PGO and KD was stronger than that of the relationship between PGO and KC.
• In addition, the positive relationship between KC and ESIB was stronger than that of the relationship between KD and ESIB.

Goals are central to understanding motivated behavior, with each discipline emphasizing its consequences, levels, and types of goals. Because knowledge sharing is not mandatory in all organizations, individual personal motivation is critical for voluntary and active engagement in knowledge sharing. This study investigates the structural relationships among two distinctive forms of goal orientations as personal intrinsic motivators (learning goal orientation and performance goal orientation), two distinctive types of knowledge-sharing behaviors (knowledge collecting and knowledge donating), and employee service innovative behavior. The data were derived from 418 respondents working in five-star hotels in Busan, Korea. The positive relationship between learning goal orientation and knowledge collecting was stronger than that of the relationship between learning goal orientation and knowledge donating. The negative relationship between performance goal orientation and knowledge donating was stronger than the relationship between performance goal orientation and knowledge collecting. In addition, the positive relationship between knowledge collecting and employee service innovative behavior was stronger than the positive relationship between knowledge donating and employee service innovative behavior. The study concludes with discussions of the empirical findings, managerial implications, and strengths and limitations. Future research avenues are also offered.