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In this concluding article to the Management Science special issue on ÜManaging Knowledge in Organizations: Creating, Retaining, and Transferring Knowledge,Ý we provide an integrative framework for organizing the literature on knowledge management. The framework has two dimensions. The knowledge management outcomes of knowledge creation, retention, and transfer are represented along one dimension. Properties of the context within which knowledge management occurs are represented on the other dimension. These properties, which affect knowledge management outcomes, can be organized according to whether they are properties of a unit (e.g., individual, group, organization) involved in knowledge management, properties of relationships between units or properties of the knowledge itself. The framework is used to identify where research findings about knowledge management converge and where gaps in our understanding exist. The article discusses mechanisms of knowledge management and how those mechanisms affect a unit's ability to create, retain and transfer knowledge. Emerging themes in the literature on knowledge management are identified. Directions for future research are suggested.Knowledge Management, Organizational Learning, Knowledge Transfer, Innovation, Organizational Memory

O rganizational learning has been an important topic for the journal Organization Science and for the field. We provide a theoretical framework for analyzing organizational learning. According to the framework, organizational experience interacts with the context to create knowledge. The context is conceived as having both a latent component and an active component through which learning occurs. We also discuss current and emerging research themes related to components of our framework. Promising future research directions are identified. We hope that our perspective will stimulate future work on organizational learning and knowledge.

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

The task performance of laboratory work groups whose members were trained together or alone was investigated. At an initial training session, subjects were taught to assemble transistor radios. Some were trained in groups, others individually. A week later, subjects were asked to recall the assembly procedure and actually assemble a radio. Everyone performed these tasks in small work groups, each containing three persons of the same gender. Subjects in the group training condition worked in the same groups where they were trained, whereas subjects in the individual training condition worked in newly formed groups. Groups whose members were trained together recalled more about the assembly procedure and produced better-quality radios than groups whose members were trained alone. Through an analysis of videotape data, the mediating effects of various cognitive and social factors on the relationship between group training and performance were explored. The results indicated that group training improved group performance primarily by fostering the development of transactive memory systems among group members.

Learning by doing represents an important mechanism through which organizations prosper. Some firms, however, learn from their experience at a dramatic rate, while other firms exhibit very little learning at all. Three factors have been identified that affect the rate at which firms learn: (a) the proficiency of individual workers, (b) the ability of firm members to leverage knowledge accumulated by others, and (c) the capacity for coordinated activity inside the organization. Each factor varies with a particular kind of experience. An increase in cumulative individual experience increases individual proficiency. An increase in cumulative organizational experience provides individuals with the opportunity to benefit from knowledge accumulated by others. An increase in cumulative experience working together promotes more effective coordination and teamwork. To gain insight into factors responsible for the learning curve, we examine the contribution of each kind of experience to performance, while controlling for the impact of the other two. The study context is a teaching hospital. The task is a total joint replacement procedure, and the performance metric is procedure completion time. We find that each kind of experience makes a distinct contribution to team performance. We discuss the implications of our findings for the learning-by-doing framework in general, and learning in the team context in particular.experience-based learning, learning by doing, organizational learning, social networks, transactive memory systems

Large increases in productivity are typically realized as organizations gain experience in production. These "learning curves" have been found in many organizations. Organizations vary considerably in the rates at which they learn. Some organizations show remarkable productivity gains, whereas others show little or no learning. Reasons for the variation observed in organizational learning curves include organizational "forgetting," employee turnover, transfer of knowledge from other products and other organizations, and economies of scale.

The persistence of learning within organizations and the transfer of learning across organizations are examined on data collected from multiple organizations. Results indicate that knowledge acquired through production depreciates rapidly. The conventional measure of learning, cumulative output, significantly overstates the persistence of learning. There is some evidence that learning transfers across organizations: organizations beginning production later are more productive than those with early start dates. Once organizations begin production, however, they do not appear to benefit from learning in other organizations. The implications of the results for a theory of organizational learning are discussed. Managerial implications are described.organizational learning, learning curves, productivity, technology transfer