Abstract Tacit knowledge diffusion is implemented through direct knowledge exchange among team members. From the view of the micro knowledge exchange among members, this study aims to examine the process and rules of tacit knowledge diffusion. By consulting the SEIR epidemic propagation, this work divides the team members into different knowledge statuses, and depicts the process of tacit knowledge diffusion. Considering the influence of member heterogeneity on knowledge diffusion, this study adopts the heterogeneous cellular automata to build the tacit knowledge diffusion. Through simulations to study the impacts of the knowledge interaction strategy, distribution pattern of initial knowledge disseminator, knowledge abandon rate and knowledge accessibility among members on tacit knowledge diffusion, the results demonstrate that the knowledge abandon rate is negatively correlated with the diffusion performance of tacit knowledge, while the knowledge accessibility among members is positively correlated with the diffusion performance of tacit knowledge. Furthermore, the knowledge interaction strategy and distribution pattern of initial knowledge disseminator have significant influence on the diffusion performance of tacit knowledge.
2017, Vol. 14 
