By: Wei, Feng, Yu, Juan, Wang, Jian-Ying, Deng
This study investigates how explicit and implicit museum knowledge influences visitors’ knowledge transfer performance and examines cross-cultural differences in these mechanisms between China and South Korea. Drawing on case studies of the National Museum of Korea and the Shandong Museum, the research employs questionnaire surveys and structural equation modeling (using SPSS 19.0 and AMOS 21.0) to analyze the interplay among knowledge types, cultural contexts, and mediating variables. The findings indicate that both explicit knowledge (directly presented information) and implicit knowledge (contextual or experiential content) directly enhance visitors’ knowledge absorption and utilization, and these effects are consistent across both cultural contexts. Chinese visitors, however, demonstrate significantly higher knowledge transfer performance for both types of knowledge compared to their Korean counterparts. A chain mediation mechanism is identified: museum knowledge (explicit/implicit) influences transfer performance through sequential pathways involving knowledge expression levels (how effectively institutions present information) and knowledge acceptance characteristics (visitors’ engagement, willingness, and cognitive capacity). While this dual mediation model applies across cultural contexts, nuanced differences emerge. Chinese visitors’ knowledge transfer relies more heavily on explicit knowledge and the mediating variables, whereas Korean visitors may face performance limitations due to knowledge over-expression-- excessive information density that can overwhelm absorption capacity. Notably, knowledge acceptance characteristics emerge as the strongest proximal predictor of transfer performance in both countries, exceeding the effect of knowledge expression levels. This underscores the critical role of visitor-centric factors (e.g., visit motivation, attentional commitment) in optimizing cultural dissemination.
