## 1 Introduction
There are needed programs (so-called BYOD--bring your own device), which involve creating unified electronic platforms for information sharing for distance employees, which are associated with increased demands for the security of internal data and systems [12]. Security, or more precisely IT risk, was identified by [PERSON] [31] as one of the main areas of risk of Industry 4.0, highlighting the risk of security (data) costs, virus protection, protection of sensitive information and business secrets, encryption, firewall server protection, and automatic scanning. However, data protection is not the only challenge or threat to remote data storage and availability. An important bottleneck in this context is the willingness of individuals to share knowledge and, thus, create an information base for the subsequent use of big data in practice. Organizations are now realizing the fact that knowledge sharing is important because it provides a link between individuals and organizations [32]. It is the transfer of the knowledge that individuals have that transform to the organizational level into economic and competitive value for organizations [33]. Organizations recognize the need to focus on motivating individuals to share knowledge, as these are confidential and inextricably linked to human egos and commitment and do not flow easily through the organization [34; 35]. However, organizations often make the mistake of setting an environment opposite to the goal of information sharing, where employees are rewarded for owning the information. This has a demotivating effect on an individual sharing data, as being the owner of knowledge has the consequence of gaining a reward, a shift in the organizational structure, job security, etc. [34]. If individuals realize that their strength in the organization derives from the knowledge they own, it is likely that they will accumulate knowledge instead of sharing knowledge [34; 36; 37]. According to [PERSON] and [PERSON] [38], positive results in the context of willingness to share knowledge were reported in several surveys, pointing to the need for awareness of mutuality and reciprocity. Reciprocity or knowledge transfer can facilitate knowledge sharing if individuals see that their added value depends on the extent to which they share their own knowledge with others [33; 39]. Reciprocity as a knowledge-sharing motivator means that individuals must be able to predict that knowledge-sharing will prove useful [40], although they are not exactly sure what the outcome will be [41]. The correlation between reciprocity and sharing of knowledge boundaries implies that receiving knowledge from others stimulates the flow of knowledge [40]. The relationship between knowledge sharing and incentives was further supported by studies [36; 42], which found that there were significant changes in the stimulus system that encouraged individuals to share their knowledge, especially through technology. The forthcoming Fourth Industrial Revolution provides comprehensive systems and tools aimed at promoting information sharing at the individual, team, and organization levels, as well as at a cluster level [12; 16; 17; 20; 22; 30]. For this reason, this paper discusses the current state of focus of organizations operating in Slovakia with regard to the importance and value of knowledge in the organization, their way of internal sharing, and the level of use of knowledge databases for this purpose. The increase in disparities in individual regions of Slovakia represents an important barrier in the effort to build a competitive economy. Considering the increase in disparities found in other surveys in the analysis of the impact of employee involvement in innovation processes [11], awareness of the smart city concept [43], or employee motivation in creative behavior [44], in the context of individual regions, the authors of this paper found out whether similar results were published in other researches.