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: 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
Cites background from "The knowledge-creating company : ho..."
...A knowledge-based perspective of the firm has emerged in the strategic management literature (Cole 1998; Spender 1996a, 1996b; Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995)....
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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
Cites background from "The knowledge-creating company : ho..."
...This type of interaction and collaboration is important when attempting to transmit tacit knowledge between individuals or convert tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, thereby transforming it from individual to organizational level [84, 85, 86, 87]....
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...Collaboration is seen as one of the key manners in which knowledge is transmitted and created within the organization [49, 74, 87, 89, 98]....
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...The formal organizational structures within an organization may encourage or inhibit interactions among employees, a practice seen as vital in the effective management of knowledge [49, 87, 89, 94]....
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...Nonaka and Takeuchi [87] develop a new organizational...
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...Collaboration between individuals is also the basis for the socialization of knowledge [87]....
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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
Additional excerpts
...Knowledge may also be thought of as ‘tacit’ and ‘explicit’ (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995)....
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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
Cites background from "The knowledge-creating company : ho..."
...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....
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...Not surprisingly, the process of innovation is commonly equated with an ongoing pursuit of harnessing new and unique knowledge (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995)....
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...Several studies have underscored how new products embody organizational knowledge (e.g., Stewart, 1997), described innovation as a knowledge management process (e.g., Madhavan & Grover, 1998), and characterized innovative companies as knowledge creating (e.g., Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995)....
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01 Feb 2009
TL;DR: It is suggested that the competence to do global product development is both collective and distributed, grounded in the everyday practices of organizational members, and not a static embedded capability or stable disposition.
Abstract: Knoving in practice: Enacting a collettive capability in distributed organizing - 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 o\ 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.
2,661 citations
Cites background from "The knowledge-creating company : ho..."
...…examine the various strategies, routines, and techniques through which different types of knowledge are created, codified, converted, transferred, and exchanged (Nelson and Winter 1982, Leonard-Barton 1992, Hedlund 1994, Nonaka 1994, Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995, Winter 1987, Teece 1998, Hansen 1999)....
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...Indeed, “knowledge” has become the watchword of contemporary organizations, and research interest in knowledge, knowledge-based organizations, and knowledge management has accelerated (Kogut and Zander 1992, Starbuck 1992, Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995, Tsoukas 1996, Teece 1998)....
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References
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TL;DR: Culturalhistorical activity theory has tremendous potential because it sublates traditional dichotomies in everyday teaching-learning situations including individual/collective, body/mind, intra-/inter-psychological, cognitive/emotive and psychological/sociological as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Cultural‐historical activity theory, an outcrop of socio‐psychological approaches toward human development, has enjoyed tremendous growth over the past two decades but has yet to be appropriated into science education to any large extent. In part, the difficulties Western scholars have had in adopting this framework arise from its ontology, which is materialist dialectical and, hence, does not allow easy absorption into non‐dialectical (classical logical) thinking underlying much of Western scholarship. Cultural‐historical activity theory has tremendous potential because it sublates traditional dichotomies in everyday teaching‐learning situations including individual/collective, body/mind, intra‐/inter‐psychological, cognitive/emotive and psychological/sociological. In this contribution, we not only review the existing literature that uses or develops this non‐dualistic approach, but also articulate an intelligible explication of the theory that is more accessible to Western scholars and describe possible...
58 citations
01 Mar 2011
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of good governance in attracting FDI to promote knowledge-based economy in Japan, the Newly Industrialized Economies (NIES), Malaysia and China was investigated.
Abstract: Technology transfer from the developed countries has been made possible by foreign direct investments (FDI). The East Asian Miracle of industrial development with FDI has been led by the governments. The Newly Industrialized Economies (Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore), Malaysia and China, led by Japan, are currently moving towards knowledge-based economy from the product economy in the post-industrialization period. It is now well established that knowledge created through innovation and technological progress is the long-term driver of economic growth for the stated economies. The governments of the above mentioned economies have shown remarkable success in creating a knowledge-based economy through attracting large amount of FDI. It appears that countries with 'good governance' environments tend to attract more FDI. In the case of the selected countries of this study, FDI is contributing to the development of knowledge-based economy as it did during the industrialization period. This paper attempts to explain the impact of good governance in attracting FDI to promote knowledge-based economy in Japan, the Newly Industrialized Economies (NIES), Malaysia and China. In doing so, this paper investigates the good governance indicators and their role in attracting FDI to promote knowledge-based economy in the selected countries.
58 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse the project-based knowledge transfer and learning that occurred in two complex infrastructure (PPP) projects using face-to-face interviews with both internal and external project participants, an expost comparative analysis is made of two large-scale Belgian rail infrastructure projects.
58 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: The pervading theme in this thesis is how to design the intranet to activate the users rather than a preoccupation with technology per se.
Abstract: Designing the new intranet is about exploiting web technology in an organisational context so that the users can better utilise the intranet from a knowledge management perspective. This means to take advantage of the specific features that characterise web technology, to take advantage of the tangible traces of everyday work activities, and to take advantage of the fact that actions on an intranet are not isolated events. The pervading theme in this thesis is how to design the intranet to activate the users rather than a preoccupation with technology per se. The ambition has been to understand why intranets are being underutilised and to influence the way intranets are understood. Another objective has been to design a new framework for intranet implementations in general and for knowledge creation and knowledge sharing in particular. The research described in this thesis has taken place in an industrial environment and in close collaboration with the members of the organisation under study. The results apply to and are relevant to large and/or geographically disperse organisations, where the members do not know or know of each other and the organisation as a whole does not know what it knows. Further, leveraging the knowledge of the employees becomes increasingly important in the post-industrial society, where organisations depend on networks, co-operation, and openness to achieve a competitive edge. This thesis consists of five papers and a framing introduction. Papers 1, 2, and 3 deal with enacted knowledge and competence, whereas papers 4 and 5 are targeted towards innovation and knowledge creation. The introduction places the papers in a context and presents the contributions; (1) the application prototypes, (2) the papers, and (3) the intranet design framework.
58 citations
05 Jan 2004
TL;DR: This study draws on the KM and organizational change literature to propose a synergistic instrument to measure readiness for KM and applied it in an organizational setting.
Abstract: Implementing knowledge management (KM) projects or knowledge-sharing philosophies in organizations require significant organization change. Because the introduction of change is difficult, leaders have been encouraged to proactively prepare their organizations and its members as they begin one of these initiatives. As the first step in this process, managers should comprehensively examine their organization's underlying readiness to embrace these initiatives. Unfortunately, the measurement of an organization's readiness for KM initiatives poses significant challenges because no known instrument is available to do so. Accordingly, this study draws on the KM and organizational change literature to propose a synergistic instrument to measure readiness for KM and applied it in an organizational setting.
58 citations