Purpose: – The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of knowledge sharing (KS) on firm performance and the mediating role of intellectual capital (IC).Design/methodology/approach: – A research model was developed based on prior KS and IC studies. A survey was administered to a sample of high technology firms in China and 228 usable responses were collected. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the research model.Findings: – Tacit KS significantly was found to contribute to all three components of IC, namely human, structural and relational capital, while explicit KS only has a significant influence on human and structural capital. Human, structural and relational capital, enhance both operational and financial performance of firms. The effect of KS on firm performance is mediated by IC. Explicit KS has a greater effect on financial performance than operational performance, whereas tacit KS has a greater impact on operational performance than financial performance.Research limitations/implications: – The sample of high technology firms in China might limit the generalization of the findings. Nonetheless, this study takes its lead from and extends prior research, thus providing a deepened understanding of the role of KS in organizational settings.Practical implications: – The paper suggests that managers can enhance firm performance by enhancing their KS and IC. Managers can develop corresponding strategies based on the findings to achieve their specific performance goals.Originality/value: – This is one of the first papers to examine how KS contributes to firm performance through the mediation of IC. It will add significant value for organizations trying to enhance their performance though KS practices.

Contradictory views exist regarding whether business–information technology (IT) alignment enhances or reduces organizational agility, and no consensus has been achieved. To disentangle this puzzle, this study takes both the intellectual and social dimensions of IT alignment into account and investigates how they influence agility in opposite directions through distinct mechanisms. Based on survey data from 429 dyads of business and IT executives, we uncover that intellectual alignment impedes agility by increasing organizational inertia, while social alignment facilitates agility by enhancing emergent business–IT coordination. We also find that social alignment weakens the effect of intellectual alignment on organizational inertia. This paper fills a gap in the information systems (IS) literature by providing a theory-driven explanation of the alignment paradox, which makes a significant contribution to both IS research and practice.The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0711 .