Inter-Organisational Knowledge Transfer Process Model

Abstract

Knowledge management (KM) is an emerging discipline (Ives, Torrey & Gordon, 1997) and characterised by four processes: generation, codification, transfer, and application (Alavi & Leidner, 2001). Completing the loop, knowledge transfer is regarded as a precursor to knowledge creation (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995) and thus forms an essential part of the knowledge management process. The understanding of how knowledge is transferred is very important for explaining the evolution and change in institutions, organisations, technology, and economy. However, knowledge transfer is often found to be laborious, time consuming, complicated, and difficult to understand (Huber, 2001; Szulanski, 2000). It has received negligible systematic attention (Huber, 2001; Szulanski, 2000), thus we know little about it (Huber, 2001). However, some literature, such as Davenport and Prusak (1998) and Shariq (1999), has attempted to address knowledge transfer within an organisation, but studies on inter-organisational knowledge transfer are still much neglected. An emergent view is that it may be beneficial for organisations if more research can be done to help them understand and, thus, to improve their inter-organisational knowledge transfer process. Therefore, this article aims to provide an overview of the inter-organisational knowledge transfer and its related literature and present a proposed inter-organisational knowledge transfer process model based on theoretical and empirical studies.

Enhancing Chinese Agribusiness Supply Chains with Internet Technologies

“…Others depict the causal relationship between transfer success and influential factors. A few researchers have also attempted to provide a model to demonstrate both the transfer process and the key success factors (for example, Chen et al, 2006).…”

Knowledge Sharing

“…However, it is important to note that Szulanski's focus was entirely on knowledge sharing within an organization; within-firm knowledge transfer, as he called it. Chen, Duan, and Edwards (2006) have extended this model to inter-organizational knowledge sharing/transfer for SMEs, with a framework of five stages: identification, negotiation, selection, interaction and conversion. This is the description from the perspective of the "receiving" organization; the "source" organization is only involved in the middle three of these stages.…”

Modeling Social Influences in a Knowledge Management Network

“…The paradigms of KS have to be extended when they work on a further dimension, the interorganizational one, because they normally identify processes that are in place inside one organization. Processes related to KS among several organizations look very different (Chen & Duan & Edwards, 2006) being mainly based on relationship mechanisms realized inside and between at least two levels of receiving/giving entities: organizations and employees.…”