Mitigating Knowledge Leakage Risk in Organizations through Mobile Devices: A Contextual Approach

Abstract: The recent increase of mobile device adoption in the workplace as part of knowledge-sharing activities has caused a rise of knowledge leakage risk (KLR). KLR is a significant problem for knowledge-intensive organizations operating in highly-competitive environments. Accordingly, organizations have an increasing need to manage risk strategies in order to mitigate KLR. The contribution of this study is to provide a theoretical conceptual model to (1) identify the determinants that influence KLR through the use of mobile devices and (2) present how such factors inform organizational KLR mitigation strategies to safeguard against leakage incidents. We take a context-specific approach by drawing on literature in the area of mobile-device-usage-context, particularly “social context interaction framework” and “model of context in computer science”, organizing the constructs under human, organizational and technological perspectives to understand the contexts within which knowledge leakage occurs and finally, propose a conceptual model that can aid organizations in developing KLR strategies.