Purpose Knowledge sharing is important for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to stay alive and competitive, especially in resource-constrained and hierarchical settings. This study aims to examine how abusive supervision impairs knowledge sharing in SMEs and investigates whether employees’ learning orientation can mitigate this negative effect. Drawing on social exchange theory, conservation of resources theory and and cognitive appraisal theory, the study explores the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating effect of learning orientation. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 316 employees working in manufacturing SMEs in Türkiye.This study employed a moderated mediation analysis using covariance-based structural equation modeling via SPSS AMOS 29 to test the hypothesized relationships among abusive supervision, emotional exhaustion, learning orientation and knowledge sharing. Findings The results reveal that abusive supervision negatively predicts knowledge sharing. Emotional exhaustion mediates this relationship, indicating that employees under abusive supervision experience higher emotional exhaustion, which in turn hinders their willingness to share knowledge. Furthermore, learning orientation moderates the relationship between abusive supervision and emotional exhaustion, such that the positive association is weaker for employees with higher learning orientation. A moderated mediation analysis confirms that learning orientation buffers the indirect negative impact of abusive supervision on knowledge sharing via emotional exhaustion. Practical implications Managers in SMEs should foster a culture that supports individual learning orientation to safeguard employees from the detrimental effects of abusive supervision. Training programs and human resource policies that promote resilience and continuous learning may help sustain knowledge-sharing behaviors under adverse supervisory conditions. Originality/value This study contributes by extending social exchange theory to show how negative reciprocity undermines knowledge sharing, advancing conservation of resources theory by demonstrating that resource depletion is especially critical in resource-scarce SMEs, and enriching cognitive appraisal theory and learning orientation research by identifying learning orientation as a resilience resource that reframes abuse as a challenge rather than a threat. Contextually, it provides unique insights into Turkish manufacturing SMEs, where knowledge sharing is both essential and fragile under resource constraints.
Ekmekçioğlu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.