The managerial foundations of knowledge assets dynamics

The ability of an organisation to harness knowledge assets dynamics lies at the core of organisational value creation capacity. A key challenge both for researchers and for practitioners is to understand how to measure and manage knowledge assets dynamics. In this paper the managerial foundations of knowledge assets dynamics are introduced. For measuring and managing knowledge assets dynamics within organisations three processes are discussed as follows: knowledge assets identification, knowledge assets mapping and knowledge assets flow. The ability of an organisation to gain sustainable competitive advantages is related to the capacity of mastering these processes. Each process is analysed introducing the possible frameworks that can inspire both scholars investigating the microfoundations of organisational knowledge dynamics, and practitioners looking for approaches to leverage knowledge assets to improve business performance.

     

Organisational knowledge creation strategies: A conceptual framework

The main purposes of this article are to identify the dimensions of organisational knowledge creation strategies (EICE model: exploration, institutional entrepreneurship, combination, exploitation) and to clarify the relationship between the organisational knowledge creation strategies and its knowledge asset. For these purposes, guided by knowledge-based view and knowledge creation theory, we propose an EICE model and explore its effect on the knowledge asset. We further suggest the managerial implications and theoretical implications. The main managerial implication is that the knowledge creation strategies model may help manager to make effective strategies for knowledge creation within the organisation. The main contributions to organisation theory are extending Nonaka's knowledge creation theory to form a new strategic model for knowledge creation.     

A knowledge schema for organisational learning in academic libraries

This article introduces a formal methodology for deriving conceptual knowledge schema for today's academic libraries. This knowledge schema is defined in the form of a set of knowledge structures and their relationships, and with the purpose of identifying organisational learning requirements. These schemas will then form basis for an organisational knowledge base that assists collaborating librarians to identify appropriate links to relevant knowledge sources within the context of the tasks that they perform. The article demonstrates that the proposed schema when used in conjunction with a specialised knowledge map called the Awareness Net will constitute a suitable conceptual framework for identifying knowledge sharing and organisational learning requirements in today's university libraries.     

A model for assessing the coherence of companies’ knowledge strategy

This paper proposes a strategic model for assessing the coherence between companies’ knowledge strategies and their business strategies as well as in their competitive and organisational contexts. In analysing knowledge management literature, we locate three principal strategies: (1) knowledge development (internal or external), (2) knowledge sharing (codification or personalisation) and (3) knowledge exploitation (internal or external). We then position the three strategies and six related policies in the context-content-process dimensions of Pettigrew's model to create a useful framework for strategic analysis and a model to assess the coherence of companies’ knowledge strategy. The model can be used to evaluate how an existing knowledge strategy aligns with a company's characteristics and to formulate and implement a coherent knowledge strategy based on the current competitive environment, organisational context and business strategy.     

The interplay between individual and collective knowledge: technologies for organisational learning and knowledge building

This article presents a framework model that defines knowledge building as a co-evolution of cognitive and social systems. Our model brings together Nonaka's knowledge-creating theory and Luhmann's systems theory. It is demonstrated how collaborative knowledge building may occur – in an ideal situation – within an organisation, when people interact with each other using shared digital artefacts. For this purpose, three different technologies are introduced as examples: social-tagging systems, pattern-based task-management systems, and wikis. These examples have been chosen to demonstrate that knowledge building can occur with respect to both declarative and procedural knowledge. The differences and similarities between these technologies, as far as their potential for organisational knowledge building is concerned, are discussed in the light of the framework model.     

Narrative approaches to the transfer of organisational knowledge

Narratives, or stories, have been identified as one of the ways in which knowledge might be transferred, shared or exchanged in organisational settings. Beyond their identification, little consideration has been given to the ways in which narrative approaches can increase our understanding of the creation and dissemination of knowledge in organisations. This paper reflects upon some of the ways in which narrative approaches might contribute towards a better understanding of organisational knowledge management. It contributes to the debate on the nature and significance of the contextual features of organisational knowledge, particularly the role of tacit knowledge, and identifies some of the distinctions between formal and informal knowledge transfer mechanisms, which operate (with or without effective management) within organisations.     

How knowledge management processes can create and capture value for firms?

Knowledge has become the main competitive tool for firms. Just as knowledge is considered as the most important strategic resource, knowledge management (KM) is considered to be critical to a firm’s success. Several attempts have been undertaken to identify and define the different KM processes. From the literature review, four key dimensions stand out as affecting KM processes: knowledge creation, knowledge transfer, knowledge storage/retrieval, and knowledge application. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the KM and value literature by determining the importance of the different processes of KM for increasing value creation and value capture in firms. The context for the research hypotheses is the Spanish banking industry in 2010. The results support a positive relationship between KM and value creation, and between value creation and value capture.     

Intellectual capital and knowledge sharing: the mediating role of organisational knowledge-sharing climate

Healthcare organisations are facing the constant trade off to contain expenditures without sacrificing the quality of patient's care. This challenge to do ‘more with less’ induced healthcare executives to heavily invest in innovations activities in order to increase the efficiency of their organisations. By taking an individual-level perspective, our study focuses on knowledge-sharing behaviour among healthcare practitioners as a critical element to continuously improve the performance of healthcare organisations. Specifically we explore the effect of intellectual capital on practitioners’ knowledge-sharing behaviour, and propose organisational knowledge-sharing climate as mediator. We conducted a survey on three healthcare organisations. Our results substantiate the positive link between intellectual capital and knowledge-sharing behaviour, and reveal that organisational knowledge-sharing climate fully mediates this relationship. These findings provide hospital managers with key implications for the management of intellectual capital as a lever to improve the sharing and the diffusion of knowledge among practitioners.     

Research intensity and knowledge transfer activity in UK universities

As the innovation process has become more open and networked, Government policy in the UK has sought to promote both research excellence in the university sector and the translation of this into economic benefit through university-business engagement. However, this policy approach has tended to be applied uniformly with little account for organisational differences within the sector. In this paper we consider if differences between universities in their research performance is reflected in their knowledge transfer activity. Specifically, as universities develop a commercialization agenda are the strategic priorities for knowledge transfer, the organisational supports in place to facilitate knowledge transfer and the scale and scope of knowledge transfer activity different for high research intensive (HRI) and low research intensive (LRI) universities? The findings demonstrate that universities’ approach to knowledge transfer is shaped by institutional and organisational resources, in particular their ethos and research quality, rather than the capability to undertake knowledge transfer through a Technology Transfer Office (TTO). Strategic priorities for knowledge transfer are reflected in activity, in terms of the dominance of specific knowledge transfer channels, the partners with which universities engage and the geography of business engagement.     

Rethinking knowledge hierarchies – bridging the gulf between theory and practice: the case of Frankfurt airport’s billing department

This paper examines the value of concrete empirical data in enhancing our understanding of knowledge hierarchies (KHs). Theoretical debate has generated different insights and perspectives, but the term (KH) remains a misconstrued principle. In today’s age of austerity, managing complex administrative processes in an airport billing environment, while striving for effectiveness and efficiency is challenging. These billing processes are influenced by the existing organisational KH. This study sheds light on the hybrid forms of KH: first, the theoretical impact: through data, information and knowledge as KH; second, the stakeholders’ understanding of their role within business processes. The method adopted for this study is influenced by the nature of the problem to be addressed. It uses a qualitative approach, analysing the billing processes and conducting interviews to gauge the stakeholders’ perceptions in order to demonstrate that there are significant variations in understanding organisational key roles.     

Crafting the virtual prototype: how firms integrate knowledge and capabilities across organisational boundaries

This paper examines the introduction of Integrated Software Technologies in Product Development focusing on their influence on organisational Experimentation and Prototyping practices. In particular, it explores the role of ‘virtual prototyping’ techniques, concepts and models in facilitating multi-functional processes coordination and multi-disciplinary knowledge integration. It argues that the role of software in supporting inter-functional cooperation and the coordination of knowledge and activities depends on the organisation’s ability to nurture integrating routines which support two-directional translation flows between ‘local’ (function-based) and ‘global’ (computer-embedded) knowledge and activity levels. These mechanisms also lie at the heart of dynamic capabilities’ creation and maintenance.     

Value networks: how organisations really work An Interview with Verna Allee

This interview seeks to reframe the traditional perspective on organisations. Verna Allee's work gives meaning to how the networked organisation can be understood in a very practical way. She changes the lens from hierarchy to network, from process to people, from structure to relationship. Her innovative thinking strips away traditional business thinking to reveal the new patterns of management practice essential for success in a more complex and dynamic business environment. With her systems diagramming tools, which map knowledge exchanges in the context of relationships, she provides a profound understanding of how value is created in organisations. Her approach demonstrates how and why making visible the intangible dimensions of relationships and knowledge exchanges significantly contributes to value creation and business self-organisation.     

TMT异质性对商业模式创新的影响:知识创造的中介作用

本文通过对来自国内的117家中小企业的268个样本数据进行分析,引入高层梯队理论和知识创造理论,探讨了TMT的异质性通过中介变量知识创造对于商业模式创新的影响。研究结果表明,TMT的年龄异质性对于企业商业模式创新具有负面的影响作用,教育水平异质性对于企业商业模式创新具有正面的影响作用,年龄异质性对于知识创造具有负面的影响,教育水平异质性对于知识创造具有正面的影响,知识创造对于商业模式创新具有显著的正面影响。     

Perceived value of knowledge: the potential informer's perception

Achieving value from knowledge has been illusive to the organization despite recent attempts to capitalize on it. An individual's willingness to share his or her knowledge is an essential factor in the organization benefiting from the knowledge it collectively possesses. Yet little is understood regarding what knowledge people are willing to share. This paper describes the development of a new construct, perceived value of knowledge (PVK). PVK's relationship with intentions to share knowledge is illustrated (both qualitatively and quantitatively). The qualitative study illustrates that it may influence the enablers and the barriers to knowledge sharing. The quantitative study found that PVK is positively related to intentions to share knowledge, while Uniqueness of Knowledge (a related but separate construct) is negatively related to intentions to share knowledge. Implications of perceived value of knowledge is discussed.     

不同新颖度知识创造与企业成长动态关系研究——基于华为时间序列数据的探索性案例研究

知识创造作为企业内生性知识存量积累的来源以及获取自主知识产权的基础,在我国强调自主创新的转型经济背景下变得日益重要。相关研究多基于过程视角探索知识创造过程(能力)对企业创新绩效的影响,却对企业创造的新知识到底如何影响企业成长关注不够,这使得现有研究不能解释为什么具有相同知识创造过程的企业最终会获得不一样成长结果的现象。本文基于新颖度区分的企业知识创造结果视角,以华为时间序列数据为对象进行探索性纵向案例研究,对企业所创造的不同新颖程度的新知识与企业成长间动态关系进行研究。发现:知识创造对企业成长的积极效应具有一定的滞后期,并随时间推移呈现出先递增再递减的倒U型特征;随着所创造知识的新颖程度提高,知识创造对企业成长的影响呈现出近似U型的特征。最后,文章讨论了理论贡献、管理意义与研究局限。     

Knowledge creation processes as critical enablers for innovation

Knowledge conversion is a prominent theme within the knowledge management field and the question arises how knowledge creation processes can grow innovation capability maturity. This notion provides the platform for aligning knowledge creation processes to the requirements for innovation capability growth from one maturity level to the next. In order to achieve this alignment, the authors identified a knowledge creation path as a key enabler for maturity growth in each innovation capability area. Knowledge management tools and organisational facilitating conditions that support the specific knowledge processes highlighted in the identified path were identified through a literature study and subsequently synthesised to form a framework. This framework provides guidelines for the use of knowledge creation processes as a vehicle to improve innovation. The amount of time needed to practically test the framework does not allow for the practical implementation of the framework and the impact of the framework was demonstrated by discussing a practical organisational scenario.     

Sharing knowledge,being different and working as a team

Knowledge-intensive work in modern global organisations is largely organised in teams or groups. Most of this work can be classified as knowledge creation with outcomes such as plans, contracts, proposals and analyses. Cooperating for knowledge-intensive work is recognised as a social process in which identification and organisational climate play an important role. Yet despite the mutual interdependence of members, their relations in teams are not necessarily closely knitted. Teams in multinational companies consist of members with different national, ethnic, functional and educational backgrounds, who are often situated at different locations, using a combination of means to communicate. These are not the most favourable conditions for an open way of exchanging knowledge and insights. On the other side, diversity in expertise is supposed to be a necessary condition for knowledge creation. It offers the requisite variety that is needed to cope with complex problems and the cognitive distance that is supposed to stimulate organisational learning. It is expected that identification of team members with their group can counterbalance the negative effects of diversity, while it can enforce the positive effect of task interdependence. This research is directed to the relations between social identification, diversity, interdependence and knowledge sharing in corporate teams. Social identification is an important issue since it is known as a builder of extra role behaviour in organisations. Diversity and interdependence are team features that shape the identification with a team. Social identification is considered as an important mediator between these independent variables and knowledge sharing as a dependent variable. The research has been carried out in a large beverage company with plants and agencies all over the world. A questionnaire has been used with validated scales. The research data stem from a sample of 169 respondents from 30 teams. A strong relation between knowledge sharing and social identification was found, while diversity of teams plays an intriguing role in stimulating and inhibiting knowledge sharing between team members.     

Instance-based cognitive mapping: a process for discovering a knowledge worker's tacit mental model

This paper addresses tacit-to-explicit knowledge externalization, arguably the most critical, and yet problematic, phase of Nonaka's knowledge creation theory. Specifically, we propose and describe instance-based cognitive mapping (ICM), a unique externalization process that analyzes multiple decision instances using the inductive learning algorithms of artificial intelligence to generate a polynomial representation of the knowledge worker's mental model, explicitly relating how the knowledge worker implicitly selects and weighs key factors in making decisions within a specific problem domain. After reviewing current externalization techniques, we describe the characteristics, and evaluate the advantages, of the ICM process. An exploratory test of the process suggests that inductive learning algorithms, such as the group method of data handling, can be used to discover a reasonable polynomial estimate of a knowledge worker's tacit mental model. This estimate can then be compared with other explicit models and standards, updated with new information and knowledge, and internalized by all interested knowledge workers.     

产业集群促进创新的边界条件解析

 基于知识交换是集群知识创造能力的核心点这一观点,系统分析了产业集群内知识交换的前因、使能和效率的影响因素,在此基础上归纳出集群知识创造能力的生成机制的框架,认为集群并不必然导致创新能力的提高。进而分析了集群知识创造失败的几种类型,结合我国制造业产业集群的实际,认为集群产品知识宽度过窄、过度模块化、缺乏基于通用核心技术的关联产业、缺少合作导向的领导企业及相应的制度化规则,以及由此引发的同质化竞争与合作的限制效应等,是抑制我国制造业集群创新能力提升的重要瓶颈。     

知识型企业并购中的风险控制选择

知识型企业并购是基于价值创造的投资行为,但并购的价值创造依赖于并购投机价值和风险损失的实现情况,风险损失的减少就意味着并购价值创造的增加。本文分析了风险损失和价值创造的内在关系,以及风险控制的选择如何影响并购的风险损失和价值创造。