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Journal ArticleDOI

Inter- and Intra-organizational knowledge transfer: a meta analytic review and assessment of its antecedents and consequences

01 Jun 2008-Journal of Management Studies (JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES)-Vol. 45, Iss: 4, pp 830-853
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use meta-analytic techniques to examine how knowledge, organization and network level antecedents differentially impact organizational knowledge transfer, and demonstrate how the intra-and inter-organizational context, the directionality of knowledge transfers, and measurement characteristics moderate the relationships studied.
Abstract: Research on organizational knowledge transfer is burgeoning, and yet our understanding of its antecedents and consequences remains rather unclear. Although conceptual and qualitative reviews of the organizational knowledge transfer literature have emerged, no study has attempted to summarize previous quantitative empirical findings. As a first step towards that goal, we use meta-analytic techniques to examine how knowledge, organization and network level antecedents differentially impact organizational knowledge transfer. Additionally, we consolidate research on the relationship between knowledge transfer and its consequences. We also demonstrate how the intra- and inter-organizational context, the directionality of knowledge transfers, and measurement characteristics moderate the relationships studied. By aggregating and consolidating existing research, our study not only reveals new insights into the levers and outcomes of organizational knowledge transfer, but also provides meaningful directions for future research.
Citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss several seminal theories of creativity and innovation and then apply a comprehensive levels-of-analysis framework to review extant research into individual, team, organizational, and multilevel innovation.

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Abstract: The search for a relation between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria and corporate financial performance (CFP) can be traced back to the beginning of the 1970s. Scholars and investors have published more than 2000 empirical studies and several review studies on this relation since then. The largest previous review study analyzes just a fraction of existing primary studies, making findings difficult to generalize. Thus, knowledge on the financial effects of ESG criteria remains fragmented. To overcome this shortcoming, this study extracts all provided primary and secondary data of previous academic review studies. Through doing this, the study combines the findings of about 2200 individual studies. Hence, this study is by far the most exhaustive overview of academic research on this topic and allows for generalizable statements. The results show that the business case for ESG investing is empirically very well founded. Roughly 90% of studies find a nonnegative ESG–CFP relation. More impor...

1,200 citations

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Abstract: El presente documento es el informe de investigacion sobre el Estudio de Fortalecimiento de los Procesos de Gestion del Conocimiento en los Grupos de Investigacion de los Departamentos de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Estudio de Caso: Departamento de Ingenieria Electrica y Electronica, tema propuesto para obtener el titulo de Magister en Administracion de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia. El desarrollo del trabajo de investigacion ha sido dirigido por el Ingeniero Andres Pavas, quien es profesor e investigador del Programa sobre Adquisicion y Analisis de Senales PAAS-UN. Este trabajo de investigacion propone un instrumento de medicion para los procesos de gestion de conocimiento (GC) llevados a cabo por grupos de investigacion. El instrumento fue disenado teniendo en cuenta los referentes teoricos en el area de la GC, el modelo de medicion de los grupos de investigacion de Colciencias y los aspectos estrategicos institucionales de la Universidad Nacional. Asimismo, se propone un procedimiento para identificar el nivel de madurez del Departamento y entregar informacion pertinente para plantear acciones que conlleven a mejorar las actividades de investigacion de los grupos por medio de un plan de fortalecimiento. La importancia del estudio radica en desarrollar una aproximacion practica en el area de la GC para el caso de grupos de investigacion presentes en Colombia. Los resultados hallados permiten determinar el nivel de madurez de los grupos de investigacion y del Departamento al que pertenecen. Finalmente se propone un plan de fortalecimiento que permitira el cierre de brechas actuales, mejorar el desempeno de las actividades de investigacion del DIEE y contribuir al cumplimiento del Plan Global de Desarrollo-2021, por medio de la formalizacion de la gestion de su conocimiento.

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Journal ArticleDOI
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a theoretical framework for inter-organizational knowledge transfer and identify key themes covered by the six articles included in the Special Issue on Inter-Organizational Knowledge Transfer, and then discuss priorities for future research.
Abstract: Many papers have been published recently in the fields of strategy and international business research incorporating the role of organizational knowledge as a basis of firm competitive advantage. While such knowledge is normally developed within the firm, it is important that firms possess the ability to learn from others in order to meet the increasing pace of competition. Knowledge transfer, defined here as an event through which one organization learns from the experience of another, has thus become an important research area within the broader domain of organizational learning and knowledge management. This paper presents a theoretical framework, identifies key themes covered by the six articles included in the Special Issue on Inter-Organizational Knowledge Transfer, and then discusses priorities for future research.

817 citations


Cites background or result from "Inter- and Intra-organizational kno..."

  • ...We think that there is potential to explore further the distinct phases in a knowledge transfer process, since, as Van Wijk et al. (2008) suggest, there is a gap in the literature here....

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  • ...Van Wijk et al. (2008) find that cultural distance particularly hinders knowledge transfer in terms of intraorganizational knowledge transfer, and they recommend that more research is needed...

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  • ...Van Wijk et al. (2008) identify that in prior research studies, ambiguity of knowledge has a significant, but negative, impact on knowledge transfer....

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  • ...Van Wijk et al. (2008) identify that organizational characteristics such as size and absorptive capacity positively impact knowledge transfer....

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  • ...In addition, none of the papers, except for Van Wijk et al. (2008), identify the importance of the relatedness of the knowledge between the donor and the recipient....

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References
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Book
01 Dec 1969
TL;DR: The concepts of power analysis are discussed in this paper, where Chi-square Tests for Goodness of Fit and Contingency Tables, t-Test for Means, and Sign Test are used.
Abstract: Contents: Prefaces. The Concepts of Power Analysis. The t-Test for Means. The Significance of a Product Moment rs (subscript s). Differences Between Correlation Coefficients. The Test That a Proportion is .50 and the Sign Test. Differences Between Proportions. Chi-Square Tests for Goodness of Fit and Contingency Tables. The Analysis of Variance and Covariance. Multiple Regression and Correlation Analysis. Set Correlation and Multivariate Methods. Some Issues in Power Analysis. Computational Procedures.

115,069 citations


"Inter- and Intra-organizational kno..." refers background in this paper

  • ...This effect size may be labelled medium (cf. Cohen, 1988), which suggests that the more tacit, specific, and complex the underlying knowledge, the less easily it can be transferred....

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  • ...Evidently, this limited number of studies impacts observed variance and influences the effect sizes we found (Cohen, 1988)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the ability of a firm to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends is critical to its innovative capabilities.
Abstract: In this paper, we argue that the ability of a firm to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends is critical to its innovative capabilities. We label this capability a firm's absorptive capacity and suggest that it is largely a function of the firm's level of prior related knowledge. The discussion focuses first on the cognitive basis for an individual's absorptive capacity including, in particular, prior related knowledge and diversity of background. We then characterize the factors that influence absorptive capacity at the organizational level, how an organization's absorptive capacity differs from that of its individual members, and the role of diversity of expertise within an organization. We argue that the development of absorptive capacity, and, in turn, innovative performance are history- or path-dependent and argue how lack of investment in an area of expertise early on may foreclose the future development of a technical capability in that area. We formulate a model of firm investment in research and development (R&D), in which R&D contributes to a firm's absorptive capacity, and test predictions relating a firm's investment in R&D to the knowledge underlying technical change within an industry. Discussion focuses on the implications of absorptive capacity for the analysis of other related innovative activities, including basic research, the adoption and diffusion of innovations, and decisions to participate in cooperative R&D ventures. **

31,623 citations


"Inter- and Intra-organizational kno..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Larger firms or organizational units may not only have more resources to devote to knowledge transfer (Gupta and Govindarajan, 2000), but may also have more diverse knowledge resources that enable absorption of new knowledge (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990)....

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  • ...Originally introduced by Cohen and Levinthal (1990), absorptive capacity has emerged as one of the most prominent themes in the literature on organizational knowledge transfer....

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  • ...Absorptive capacity refers to the ability to recognize, assimilate and apply new external knowledge (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Lane et al., 2006; Zahra and George, 2002)....

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  • ...In addition, the accumulation of knowledge not only permits more efficient utilization of related knowledge but also enables organizations to better understand and evaluate the nature and commercial potential of technological advances (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990)....

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  • ...Our review clearly demonstrates that prior experience and related knowledge contributes to transferring knowledge both between and within organizations (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the relation between the exploration of new possibilities and the exploitation of old certainties in organizational learning and examine some complications in allocating resources between the two, particularly those introduced by the distribution of costs and benefits across time and space.
Abstract: This paper considers the relation between the exploration of new possibilities and the exploitation of old certainties in organizational learning. It examines some complications in allocating resources between the two, particularly those introduced by the distribution of costs and benefits across time and space, and the effects of ecological interaction. Two general situations involving the development and use of knowledge in organizations are modeled. The first is the case of mutual learning between members of an organization and an organizational code. The second is the case of learning and competitive advantage in competition for primacy. The paper develops an argument that adaptive processes, by refining exploitation more rapidly than exploration, are likely to become effective in the short run but self-destructive in the long run. The possibility that certain common organizational practices ameliorate that tendency is assessed.

16,377 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a model that incorporates this overall argument in the form of a series of hypothesized relationships between different dimensions of social capital and the main mechanisms and proces.
Abstract: Scholars of the theory of the firm have begun to emphasize the sources and conditions of what has been described as “the organizational advantage,” rather than focus on the causes and consequences of market failure. Typically, researchers see such organizational advantage as accruing from the particular capabilities organizations have for creating and sharing knowledge. In this article we seek to contribute to this body of work by developing the following arguments: (1) social capital facilitates the creation of new intellectual capital; (2) organizations, as institutional settings, are conducive to the development of high levels of social capital; and (3) it is because of their more dense social capital that firms, within certain limits, have an advantage over markets in creating and sharing intellectual capital. We present a model that incorporates this overall argument in the form of a series of hypothesized relationships between different dimensions of social capital and the main mechanisms and proces...

15,365 citations


"Inter- and Intra-organizational kno..." refers background in this paper

  • ...In a similar way, tie strength and trust may ultimately limit access to divergent perspectives and to alternative ways of doing things (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998)....

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  • ...The social context can be divided and evaluated along three main dimensions: the structural, relational and cognitive dimension (Inkpen and Tsang, 2005; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998)....

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  • ...The third dimension of social capital, the cognitive dimension, refers to the resources within relationships that provide shared representations, interpretations, and systems of meaning (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that what firms do better than markets is the sharing and transfer of the knowledge of individuals and groups within an organization, and that knowledge is held by individuals but is also expressed in regularities by which members cooperate in a social community (i.e., group, organization, or network).
Abstract: How should we understand why firms exist? A prevailing view has been that they serve to keep in check the transaction costs arising from the self-interested motivations of individuals. We develop in this article the argument that what firms do better than markets is the sharing and transfer of the knowledge of individuals and groups within an organization. This knowledge consists of information (e.g., who knows what) and of know-how (e.g., how to organize a research team). What is central to our argument is that knowledge is held by individuals, but is also expressed in regularities by which members cooperate in a social community (i.e., group, organization, or network). If knowledge is only held at the individual level, then firms could change simply by employee turnover. Because we know that hiring new workers is not equivalent to changing the skills of a firm, an analysis of what firms can do must understand knowledge as embedded in the organizing principles by which people cooperate within organizatio...

12,719 citations


"Inter- and Intra-organizational kno..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Firms need to transfer and acquire new knowledge as they seek to develop new applications and survive (Henderson and Cockburn, 1994; Kogut and Zander, 1992)....

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  • ...© Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2008 Our study also corroborates research showing that firms and units may equally improve their innovative capacity by leveraging the skills of others through the transfer of knowledge (Kogut and Zander, 1992)....

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  • ...Organizational knowledge transfer depends © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2008 on how easily the underlying knowledge sources can be communicated, interpreted, and absorbed (Kogut and Zander, 1992)....

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