The paper examines the acquisition, depreciation and transfer of knowledge acquired through learning by doing in service organizations. The analysis is based on weekly data collected over a one and a half year period from 36 pizza stores located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The 36 stores, which are franchised from the same corporation, are owned by 10 different franchisees. We find evidence of learning in these service organizations: as the organizations gain experience in production, the unit cost of production declines significantly. Knowledge acquired through learning by doing is found to depreciate rapidly in these organizations. Knowledge acquired through learning by doing is found to depreciate rapidly in these organizations. Knowledge is found to transfer across stores owned by the same franchisee but not across stores owned by different franchisees. Theoretical and practical implications of the work are discussed.organizational learning, learning curves, productivity, knowledge transfer

No abstract

No abstract

Where is knowledge embedded in organizations? The chapter describes results on the persistence and transfer of knowledge in fast food franchises, and presents the results on the productivity of the franchises and on the timeliness of their service. It is shown that the qualitative evidence about where knowledge was embedded in the franchises suggests that knowledge gained from experience at the franchises was embedded in individual workers and in the organizations’ routines, structures, and technologies. It is argued that the fast food franchises were able to realize significant productivity gains in the face of extraordinarily high turnover because a significant component of the knowledge was embedded in the organization's structure and technology rather than in individual employees. Further, embedding knowledge in structure and technology appeared to facilitate the transfer of knowledge across organizations.