Knowledge Sharing in Financial Credit Reporting: An Exploratory Case Study in an Australian Context

Knowledge Management (KM) has received increasing attention these days. However, current literature suggest that no KM study has been undertaken in the financial credit reporting industry, which is highly regulated in Australia due to its sensitive and confidential business nature. We conducted an exploratory case study of an Australian credit bureau to gain an insight into knowledge sharing in the financial credit reporting industry. It is an empirical study that involves in-depth analysis of the shared knowledge type and knowledge sharing activities. More importantly, we found that when external rules and regulations mandate how business is conducted in this industry, explicit measures need to be employed at the organizational level to ensure conformance. These measures include appropriate quality assurance infrastructure, appropriate technological solutions, and employee recruitment, training and rewards. At the individual level, employees take extra measures on their own accord to ensure quality due to possible serious repercussions for making mistakes if these rules/regulations are breached. This research begins a theoretical foundation for knowledge sharing in highly regulated industries.