Factors influencing knowledge management within inter-organizational projects.

AuthorLi, Huiping
PositionReport
  1. INTRODUCTION

    In the knowledge-driven economy of today, the source of profitability has shifted from tangible assets to intangible assets. How effective and how efficient businesses are at knowledge production, knowledge acquisition and knowledge utilization determine whether they are competitive in the market place. Knowledge management has been an effective tool to help more and more enterprises and research institutions to build their core competencies. KM can help them to coordinate different resources so as to predict and solve problems more creatively.

    The diversification and complexity of the technological environment in a global market place poses considerable difficulties for individual companies that seek to achieve technological innovation (Teece, 1998). Because knowledge decentralizes in different enterprises and even in different countries, knowledge integration and innovation most effectively occurs across organizational boundaries (Chen, He and Tong, 2004). More and more, for innovative projects to succeed different enterprises in the same industry and even in different industries must collaborate

    So how do we manage knowledge in cross-organizational projects? A large body of literature already exists on knowledge management within an enterprise, but many fewer studies have examined knowledge management between organizations. So there is a need for greater research on (1) the factors that can be examined by cross-organizational knowledge management systems, and (2) the impact those factors can have upon the success of cross-organizational projects. In this paper, only KM involving such cooperative programs is examined.

  2. THEORETICAL ARGUMENT

    While there is a dearth of studies on the use of KM in cross-organizational collaboration, there is plenty of research on inter-organizational cooperation. Oliver (1990) defined inter-organizational cooperation as continued interactive activity and linkage between organizations in a certain business environment. Williams (2005) proposed another definition of inter-organizational cooperation: one firm exchanging knowledge with another for the same or a complementary objective. Moreover, according to Williams, the vitality of this relationship will depend largely on the future benefit expected by each firm. The collaboration will be more easily accepted--and the network will be more inclined to expand and deepen the cooperation if it provides more opportunities for each member to gain added value.

    Studies show that inter-organizational cooperation can create new knowledge. Davenport and Miller (2000) proposed that inter-organizational cooperation can help firms in competition with one another to acquire new knowledge. Das and Teng (1998) believed that the degree to which a business will form cross-organizational linkages is dependent upon the amount of trust it places in its partners. And the benefits derived from inter-organizational cooperation need to be mutual.

    The location of the cooperating businesses and the degree of their cooperation can determine how much they can improve their competitive positions through cross-organizational cooperation. Kumar and van Dissel (1996) concluded that with effective planning and management, inter-organizational projects will facilitate access to new knowledge, and through information and technology exchanges between their staffs, the collaborating firms will experience improvement in their knowledge management capability.

    Inter-organizational cooperation can be implemented in various ways that will be dictated by what knowledge or resources each side needs. The form of cooperation will also be dictated by the objectives and past experiences of each side, which may change over time and as the business environment changes (Pisano, 1991; Parkhe, 1993; Simonin and Helleloid, 1993). Firms will take different interorganizational forms under different conditions (Oliver, 1990). Inter-organizational cooperation can take many forms: such as strategic alliances, joint ventures, partnerships, out-sourcing, supplier-customer agreements; distribution channels, cartel agreements, resource-sharing agreements and cooperative alliances among governments (Das and Teng, 1998; Oliver, 1990). Each of these forms has its own characteristics; therefore, different forms of cooperation may be better suited, or not, depending upon different conditions. Sobrero and Roberts (2002) too observed that cooperation can take the form of strategic alliances, long-term contracts and joint R&D arrangements. Inter-organizational cooperation resulted in gains in productivity and break-through in innovation and sales revenue increases. Brown, Cobb and Lusch (2006) concluded that interactive activity based only upon a contractual relationship will be prone to conflict, whereas activities that arise out of a relationship of trust will lead to greater satisfaction and less conflict.

    2.1 Knowledge Management

    Knowledge is a commodity that can be shared among several different persons at the same time. The knowledge one possess will not be diminished even as it is shared with others. Indeed, sometimes it may increase by reason of its dissemination. Drucker (1993) proposed that knowledge is information that changes a person or thing; knowledge can serve not only as an instrument to promote action, but also guides an individual or organization to adopt more efficient methods. According to Johannessen, Olsen and Olaisen (1999), knowledge is structured experience that provides a framework for the generation and evaluation of new information. In these definitions, knowledge is no longer regarded as disorderly or disjointed, but is instead woven into a dynamic system that enables people and organizations to interact with one another.

    Most researchers on knowledge management divide knowledge into two classes, depending on the ease of its transfer: tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge, both which can be created and acquired in specific ways (Nonaka, 1994; Dutta and Weiss, 1997; Brown and Duguid, 1998; Rubenstein-Montano et a1., 2001). Tacit knowledge resides in employees' consciousness and is exhibited on a daily basis in their experience, know-how, inspiration and intelligence. It is unspoken, highly individualized and difficult to formalize or express in language. Conversely, explicit knowledge is knowledge stored in information systems, which has been reduced to a structured or semi-structured format such as a report, brochure, manual, etc. If we were to liken explicit knowledge...

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