Home  About us  Contact
 

Knowledge Exploration (knowledge + exploration)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting100%

Selected Abstracts

Using knowledge within small and medium-sized firms: A systematic review of the evidence

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 4 2005
Richard Thorpe
This paper provides a systematic review of the literature on how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use and acquire knowledge. The review was undertaken as part of the Economic and Social Research Council's Evolution of Business Knowledge Programme. The paper describes the systematic review protocol and provides a detailed explanation of the methods used. From the review, it is evident that SME knowledge research concentrates primarily on the acquisition and use of knowledge, treating it as an asset that is transferred by routines. The findings suggest that research is focused in three main areas. First, on the influence and abilities of the entrepreneur to extract, use and develop knowledge resources. Secondly, on firm-wide systems and the social capital that facilitates knowledge exploration and exploitation. Thirdly, on the provision of knowledge and learning experiences through government policy. From a practical perspective, the review concludes that policies encouraging entrepreneurship and economic regeneration need to be more flexible and sensitive to the often complex contexts within which knowledge is used by SMEs. From a research perspective, and given the flexible, opportunity-oriented and often novel nature of SMEs identified in these studies, there is a need to consider the relational and embedded qualities of knowledge by which these characteristics are framed; qualities that resist conceptualization as some form of separable, material asset. [source]

A Capability-Based Framework for Open Innovation: Complementing Absorptive Capacity

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 8 2009
Ulrich Lichtenthaler
abstract We merge research into knowledge management, absorptive capacity, and dynamic capabilities to arrive at an integrative perspective, which considers knowledge exploration, retention, and exploitation inside and outside a firm's boundaries. By complementing the concept of absorptive capacity, we advance towards a capability-based framework for open innovation processes. We identify the following six ,knowledge capacities' as a firm's critical capabilities of managing internal and external knowledge in open innovation processes: inventive, absorptive, transformative, connective, innovative, and desorptive capacity. ,Knowledge management capacity' is a dynamic capability, which reconfigures and realigns the knowledge capacities. It refers to a firm's ability to successfully manage its knowledge base over time. The concept may be regarded as a framework for open innovation, as a complement to absorptive capacity, and as a move towards understanding dynamic capabilities for managing knowledge. On this basis, it contributes to explaining interfirm heterogeneity in knowledge and alliance strategies, organizational boundaries, and innovation performance. [source]

Knowledge exploitation, knowledge exploration, and competency trap

KNOWLEDGE AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT: THE JOURNAL OF CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION, Issue 3 2006
Weiping LiuArticle first published online: 11 AUG 200
It is no surprise that knowledge exploitation and knowledge exploration have become the consistent theme in organizational learning literature. Strategy and organization theorists have similarly observed the dynamic capabilities anchored in a firm's ability to simultaneously exploit current technologies and resources to secure efficiency benefits, and creating variation through exploratory innovation. While some studies argue that excessive exploration or excessive exploitation can lead to a competency trap, the ,competency trap' component actually has received less empirical scrutiny. This paper provides a study about how competency traps are formed in the process of knowledge exploration and exploitation as well as their effects on business performance. The paper includes three main sections: First, the theoretical interpretation of the ,competency trap' construct is broadened by investigating the formation of competency traps based on organizational learning theory; second, factors leading to the formation of different competency traps are identified; and third, the relationship between an organization's competency trap and business performance is investigated. The article ends with a discussion of implications for the organizational learning literature. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]