Why do workers within organizations or organizations in a network share information and knowledge? This question reverses the logic in some of the knowledge management literature, which addresses impediments and problems in information and knowledge sharing. According to property rights theory, information sharing can be explained in terms of self-interest, maximizing behavior, indispensability of groups and complementarities of assets. Based on this line of reasoning and on empirical evidence presented in this paper, we conclude that the ownership structure of information and knowledge systems matters. In building knowledge management systems, developers should take into account that the intuitive wisdom, indicating that central control is better control, should be interpreted with great caution.