This article explores the barriers for sharing knowledge effectiveness in Vietnamese higher education institutions (HEIs). Data were analyzed and triangulated from interviews, and focus groups from different universities and from government and university websites. Three significant factors were identified: bureaucratic management causing a lack of autonomy in decision-making, poor knowledge management systems, and weak individual absorptive capacity. The results demonstrate these three factors as a significant influence on academic staff to share absorb and create new knowledge measured by journal publication output, and graduate quality. The research findings provide insights on the Vietnamese higher education landscape in the transition from a centralized economy to a market economy.