Receiving starlight: how knowledge from star employees shapes non-stars’ emotions and knowledge sharing

Purpose This study examines how non-stars react emotionally and behaviorally after receiving knowledge from star employees, focusing on admiration, envy, proactive knowledge sharing and reactive knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 382 non-stars at a large R&D center via a two-wave survey to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings Non-stars with high learning orientation are more likely to experience admiration after receiving knowledge from star employees and subsequently engage in proactive knowledge sharing. By contrast, those with low learning orientation are more likely to experience envy and engage in reactive knowledge sharing. Originality/value This study advances research on star employees’ interpersonal influence by shifting attention to how non-stars interpret and react to specific knowledge-receiving interactions. It identifies admiration and envy as distinct emotional reactions to knowledge received from star employees and links these emotions to different forms of subsequent knowledge sharing. These findings suggest that knowledge receiving does not necessarily elicit proactive reciprocity; it may also lead to a lower-investment, reactive form of knowledge sharing.