Book•
The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation
01 Jan 1995-
TL;DR: In this article, Nonaka and Takeuchi argue that Japanese firms are successful precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies, and they reveal how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge.
Abstract: How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.
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TL;DR: In this article, a survey dataset collected from 180 Spanish companies is analyzed using structural equation modeling, and the results demonstrate that both firm's technology level and type of innovation affect how intellectual capital (IC) influences innovation performance.
Abstract: There is widespread understanding that intellectual capital (IC), consisting of the valuable knowledge resources of an organization, is a key enabler of innovation activities; however, little is known about the more specific contingencies impacting the relationship between IC and innovation. Thus, this article examines firm technology level and innovation type as contingency variables. It was argued that because high-tech and low-tech firms differ in terms of several knowledge characteristics (complexity, tacitness and pace of renovation), it is likely that their innovation performance is supported by different combinations of IC components. Furthermore, differences between product/service and managerial innovation could also lead to changes in the degree of relevance of various IC components. To test these contingency hypotheses, a survey dataset collected from 180 Spanish companies is analysed using structural equation modelling. The results demonstrate that both firm's technology level and type of innovation affect how IC influences innovation performance. The findings contribute to a knowledge-based perspective on innovation and pave the way for a more context-sensitive and contingency-mindful approach to understanding innovation and knowledge-based value creation.
50 citations
Cites background from "The knowledge-creating company : ho..."
...In the current globalized, digitalized and fast-pacedeconomy, the role of knowledge as a valuable organizational resource has gained increasing attention (Drucker, 1993; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Grant, 2002)....
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...This is 302 R&D Management 48, 3, 2018 VC 2017 RADMA and John Wiley & Sons Ltd especially true in low-tech firms which primarily utilise explicit knowledge (Schilling, 2011), and thus, knowledge that is easy to codify and transfer (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995)....
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...As high-tech companies deal largely with tacit knowledge (Schilling, 2011), which is difficult to codify and transfer (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995), their innovation efforts will benefit to a lesser extent from knowledge stored in manuals, databases and written procedures....
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...…the collaborative nature of the innovation process (p. 459); thus, the internal relationships among managers and employees that facilitate knowledge sharing (i.e. internal relational capital) are crucial in the development of innovations (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Carmona-Lavado et al., 2010)....
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...Moreover, the heavier reliance of low-tech firms on explicit knowledge (which can be easily codified and stored in databases; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) compared with high-tech companies explains the relevance of structural capital in low-tech firms....
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Abstract: Knowledge sharing is recognized as one of the leading factors contributing to the sustainable competitive advantage in organizations. It is especially critical for project management organizations to share knowledge among project members within an organization in order to avoid similar mistakes, improve work efficiency, and reduce failure risk. The implementation of knowledge sharing in project organizations, however, is far from simple due to the decentralization and fragmentation of the project teams and complexity of knowledge required. This paper aims to explore the mechanism to improve knowledge sharing performance (KSP) with a specific focus on knowledge sharing culture (KSCu) and project team interaction (PTI). In this study, KSCu is grouped into four measures, i.e. knowledge sharing strategy (KSS), knowledge sharing climate (KSC), knowledge sharing incentive (KSI) and organizational members trust (OMT). KSP is measured with both knowledge sharing behavior (KSB) and knowledge sharing outcome (KSO). The research hypotheses and theoretical model were formulated through literature research and theoretical analysis. Then, this study applied a structured questionnaire survey that was conducted in 78 Chinese engineering management organizations. In addition to validity analysis, reliability analysis and correlation analysis, this study tested the hypotheses based on structural equation model analysis. The empirical research results showed that there is a significant positive correlation between KSCu and KSP, and PTI can play a critical mediating role that drives KSCu to higher KSP. The results also confirmed the positive relationship between KSB and KSO. The research findings indicated that establishing a good KSCu through strengthening the KSS, KSC, KSI and OMT within engineering management organizations, and promoting the PTI can effectively improve KSP among project members.
50 citations
Cites background from "The knowledge-creating company : ho..."
...Knowledge is one of the most important and valuable organizational resources contributing to sustainable competitive advantage (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995)....
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...Knowledge is one of the most important and valuable organizational resources contributing to sustainable competitive advantage (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995)....
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: In this paper, Dedication is defined as "the act of dedicating one's life to another" in order to support a service project, i.e., "dedication".
Abstract: .................................................................................................................... iv Dedication ......................................................................................................................... vi
50 citations
09 Feb 2006
TL;DR: This thesis defends a human-centric view on KM, proposing Constructivism as the theoretical framework to guide the development of KM systems and practices, and demonstrates the applicability of ARKnowD on the analysis of an organizational scenario.
Abstract: Research in Knowledge Management (KM) has evolved substantially in the past 30 years, coming from a centralized view of KM processes to a distributed view, grounded in organizational and cognitive sciences studies that point out the social, distributed, and subjective nature of knowledge. However, KM systems still face considerable resistance, mainly because they generally impose a specific process instead of fitting in the current practices of the organization.
This thesis defends a human-centric view on KM, proposing Constructivism as the theoretical framework to guide the development of KM systems and practices. In general, a constructivist perspective on KM focuses on how knowledge emerges, giving great importance to the knowledge holders and their natural practices.
Aiming at observing the compliance of the organizational environment to the principles that characterize Constructivist KM, we propose ARKnowD, an agent-oriented methodology to develop KM systems. ARKnowD places strong emphasis in the earlier phases of software development, supporting the analyst on understanding the organizational environment before actually developing a system. Furthermore, ARKnowD consistently conducts to the design of the proposed solution, modeling the system entities, interaction and internal behavior.
In this thesis, we demonstrate the applicability of ARKnowD on the analysis of an organizational scenario. This analysis leads to the proposal and development of a socially-aware recommender system named KARe. The core of the system regards a recommendation mechanism, based on an innovative information retrieval technique presented in this thesis. Our work comprises the description, implementation and evaluation of such mechanism.
50 citations
Cites background or methods from "The knowledge-creating company : ho..."
...This is especially important in the KM context, which focuses on the effective use of human intellectual capital, since much of human knowledge is tacit and intangible (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995)....
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...Organizational top and/or middle managers are usually responsible for the project’s vision (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995), elaborated during inception....
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...Groupware supports social interaction and collaboration, considered essential for knowledge sharing (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995)....
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...Knowledge is today recognized as one of the most important assets of competitive businesses (Alavi and Leidner, 1999) (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) (Wiig, 1994)....
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...This externalization and internalization cycle seems to coincide with Nonaka and Takeushi’s Knowledge Management (KM) theory (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors deal with the qualitative new direction in achieving competitive advantage and/or core competence, outsourcing of knowledge process, which uses data as a raw material and transforms it using tech-nology, analysis tools and human intelligence into knowl-edge and competence.
Abstract: The article deals with the qualitative new direction in achieving competitive advantage and/or core competence – outsourcing of knowledge process. Knowledge economy uses data as a raw material and transforms it using tech-nology, analysis tools and human intelligence into knowl-edge and competence. Furthermore an aspect of national economy has been taken into the consideration and ex-posed as a background for the topic.
50 citations
Cites background from "The knowledge-creating company : ho..."
...Furthermore, the recognition of tacit knowledge and its importance has a number of crucially implications for company activities (Nonaka, 1995)....
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References
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TL;DR: The objective of KMS is to support creation, transfer, and application of knowledge in organizations by promoting a class of information systems, referred to as knowledge management systems.
Abstract: Knowledge is a broad and abstract notion that has defined epistemological debate in western philosophy since the classical Greek era. In the past few years, however, there has been a growing interest in treating knowledge as a significant organizational resource. Consistent with the interest in organizational knowledge and knowledge management (KM), IS researchers have begun promoting a class of information systems, referred to as knowledge management systems (KMS). The objective of KMS is to support creation, transfer, and application of knowledge in organizations. Knowledge and knowledge management are complex and multi-faceted concepts. Thus, effective development and implementation of KMS requires a foundation in several rich literatures.
9,531 citations
TL;DR: This research suggests that a knowledge infrastructure consisting of technology, structure, and culture along with a knowledge process architecture of acquisition, conversion, application, and protection are essential organizational capabilities or "preconditions" for effective knowledge management.
Abstract: A hallmark of the new economy is the ability of organizations to realize economic value from their collection of knowledge assets as well as their assets of information, production distribution, and affiliation. Despite the competitive necessity of becoming a knowledge-based organization, senior managers have found it difficult to transform their firms through programs of knowledge management. This is particularly true if their organizations have long histories of process and a tradition of business success. This research examines the issue of effective knowledge management from the perspective of organizational capabilities. This perspective suggests that a knowledge infrastructure consisting of technology, structure, and culture along with a knowledge process architecture of acquisition, conversion, application, and protection are essential organizational capabilities or preconditions for effective knowledge management. Through analysis of surveys collected from over 300 senior executives, this research empirically models and uncovers key aspects of these dimensions. The results provide a basis for understanding the competitive predisposition of a firm as it enters a program of knowledge management.
4,646 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the nature of value co-creation in the context of service-dominant (S-D) logic and develop a conceptual framework for understanding and managing value cocreation.
Abstract: Central to service-dominant (S-D) logic is the proposition that the customer becomes a co-creator of value. This emphasizes the development of customer–supplier relationships through interaction and dialog. However, research to date suggests relatively little is known about how customers engage in the co-creation of value. In this article, the authors: explore the nature of value co-creation in the context of S-D logic; develop a conceptual framework for understanding and managing value co-creation; and utilize field-based research to illustrate practical application of the framework. This process-based framework provides a structure for customer involvement that takes account of key foundational propositions of S-D logic and places the customer explicitly at the same level of importance as the company as co-creators of value. Synthesis of diverse concepts from research on services, customer value and relationship marketing into a new process-based framework for co-creation provide new insights into managing the process of value co-creation.
3,114 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined how aspects of intellectual capital influenced various innovative capabilities in organizations and found that human, organizational, and social capital and their interrelationships selectively influenced incremental and radical innovative capabilities.
Abstract: We examined how aspects of intellectual capital influenced various innovative capabilities in organizations. In a longitudinal, multiple-informant study of 93 organizations, we found that human, organizational, and social capital and their interrelationships selectively influenced incremental and radical innovative capabilities. As anticipated, organizational capital positively influenced incremental innovative capability, while human capital interacted with social capital to positively influence radical innovative capability. Counter to our expectations, however, human capital by itself was negatively associated with radical innovative capability. Interestingly, social capital played a significant role in both types of innovation, as it positively influenced incremental and radical innovative capabilities. It is widely accepted that an organization’s capability to innovate is closely tied to its intellectual capital, or its ability to utilize its knowledge resources. Several studies have underscored how new products embody organizational knowledge (e.g., Stewart, 1997), described innovation as a
3,008 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors outline a perspective on knowing in practice which highlights the essential role of human action in knowing how to get things done in complex organizational work and suggest that the competence to do global product development is both collective and distributed, grounded in the everyday practices of organizational members.
Abstract: In this paper, I outline a perspective on knowing in practice which highlights the essential role of human action in knowing how to get things done in complex organizational work. The perspective suggests that knowing is not a static embedded capability or stable disposition of actors, but rather an ongoing social accomplishment, constituted and reconstituted as actors engage the world in practice. In interpreting the findings of an empirical study conducted in a geographically dispersed hightech organization, I suggest that the competence to do global product development is both collective and distributed, grounded in the everyday practices of organizational members. I conclude by discussing some of the research implications of a perspective on organizational knowing in practice.
2,670 citations