The Acquisition, Transfer, and Depreciation of Knowledge in Service Organizations: Productivity in Franchises

Darr, Eric D.; Argote, Linda; Epple, Dennis

doi:10.1287/mnsc.41.11.1750

Cited by 1,169 publications

(947 citation statements)

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“…This constant in the denominator of the exponential implies that approximately one-third of the knowledge remains after five years, or a yearly loss rate of 18%. Argote, Epple, and Darr (Argote et al 1990, Epple et al 1991, Darr et al 1995 have estimated a much higher geometric loss parameter for manufacturing and service organizations, between 40% to 97% per year. It is unlikely that design technology would experience such a high rate of loss, however.…”

Section: Recombinant Uncertainty In Technological Searchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recombinant Uncertainty in Technological Search

2001

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W hile the course of technological change is widely accepted to be highly uncertain and unpredictable, little work has identified or studied the ultimate sources and causes of that uncertainty. This paper proposes that purely technological uncertainty derives from inventors' search processes with unfamiliar components and component combinations. Experimentation with new components and new combinations leads to less useful inventions on average, but it also implies an increase in the variability that can result in both failure and breakthrough. Negative binomial count and dispersion models with patent citation data demonstrate that new combinations are indeed more variable. In contrast to predictions, however, the reuse of components has a nonmonotonic and eventually positive effect on variability.

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Section: Recombinant Uncertainty In Technological Searchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recombinant Uncertainty in Technological Search

2001

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“…Prior work on employee turnover finds that high turnover may lead to lower organizational performance (Ton and Huckman 2008) and that departing workers may leave with valuable knowledge (Darr et al 1995;Narayanan et al 2009). Furthermore, recruiting and training new employees is expensive, and new employees' initial productivity is typically low (Staw 1980;Ton and Huckman 2008).…”

Section: Specialization Variety and Voluntary Turnovermentioning

confidence: 99%

Specialization and Variety in Repetitive Tasks: Evidence from a Japanese Bank

2012

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Sustaining operational productivity in the completion of repetitive tasks is critical to many organizations' success. Yet research points to two different work-design-related strategies for accomplishing this goal: specialization to capture the benefits of repetition and variety (i.e., working on different tasks) to keep workers motivated and provide them opportunities to learn. In this paper, we investigate how these two strategies may bring different productivity benefits over time. For our empirical analyses, we use two and a half years of transaction data from a Japanese bank's home loan application-processing line. We find that over the course of a single day, specialization, as compared to variety, is related to improved worker productivity. However, when we examine workers' experience across a number of days, we find that variety helps improve worker productivity. Additionally, we show that part of this benefit results from workers' cumulative experience with changeovers. Our results highlight the need for organizations to transform specialization and variety into mutually reinforcing strategies rather than treating them as mutually exclusive. Overall, our paper identifies new ways to improve operational performance through the effective allocation of work. Specialization and Variety in Repetitive Tasks-1 - AbstractSustaining operational productivity in the completion of repetitive tasks is critical to many organizations' success. Yet research points to two different work-design related strategies for accomplishing this goal: specialization to capture the benefits of repetition or variety to keep workers motivated and allow them to learn. In this paper, we investigate how these two strategies may bring different benefits within the same day and across days. Additionally, we examine the impact of these strategies on both worker productivity and workers' likelihood of staying at a firm. For our empirical analyses, we use two and a half years of transaction data from a Japanese bank's home loan application processing line. We find that over the course of a single day, specialization, as compared to variety, is related to improved worker productivity. However, when we examine workers' experience across days we find that variety, or working on different tasks, helps improve worker productivity. We also find that workers with higher variety are more likely to stay at the firm. Our results identify new ways to improve operational performance through the effective allocation of work.

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“…In addition, learning can occur not only from one's own actions (direct experience) but also from the experiences of others (indirect experience) (Levitt and March 1988;Huber 1991;Miner and Haunschild 1995). Empirical work supports this claim, finding that knowledge can be transferred, in part, across and within organizations (Argote et al 1990;Darr, Argote and Epple 1995;Ingram and Roberts 2000). However, while this body of research finds evidence for individual learning from both direct and indirect experience, until recently, it did not examine differential learning based on a successful or failed outcome.…”

Section: Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from My Success and from Others' Failure: Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

Staats

Gino³

2013

Management Science

198

133

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Learning from past experience is central to an organization's adaptation and survival. A key dimension of prior experience is whether an outcome was successful or unsuccessful. Although empirical studies have investigated the effects of success and failure in organizational learning, to date, the phenomenon has received little attention at the individual level. Drawing on attribution theory in psychology, we investigate how individuals learn from their own past experiences with both failure and success and from the experiences of others. For our empirical analyses, we use 10 years of data from 71 cardiothoracic surgeons who completed more than 6,500 procedures using a new technology for cardiac surgery. We find that individuals learn more from their own successes than from their own failures, but they learn more from the failures of others than from others' successes. We also find that individuals' prior successes and others' failures can help individuals overcome their inability to learn from their own failures. Together, these findings offer both theoretical and practical insights into how individuals learn directly from their prior experience and indirectly from the experiences of others. AcknowledgmentsWe thank Mike Luca, Ella Miron-Spektor, Lamar Pierce, and Enno Siemsen for valuable comments on earlier drafts of the paper. We are grateful to Jesper Sørensen, the associate editor, and to the referees who provided constructive and developmental assistance throughout the review process. All errors remain our own.-1 - Learning from My Success and From Others' Failure:Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery AbstractLearning from past experience is central to an organization's adaptation and survival. A key dimension of prior experience is whether an outcome was successful or unsuccessful. While empirical studies have investigated the effects of success and failure in organizational learning, to date the phenomenon has received little attention at the individual level. Drawing on attribution theory in psychology, we investigate how individuals learn from their own past experiences with both failure and success and from the experiences of others. For our empirical analyses, we use ten years of data from 71 cardiothoracic surgeons who completed over 6,500 procedures using a new technology for cardiac surgery. We find that individuals learn more from their own successes than from their own failures but learn more from the failures of others than from others' successes. We also find that individuals' prior successes and others' failures can help individuals overcome their inability to learn from their own failures. Together, these findings offer both theoretical and practical insights into how individuals learn directly from their prior experience and indirectly from the experiences of others.

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The Acquisition, Transfer, and Depreciation of Knowledge in Service Organizations: Productivity in Franchises

Cited by 1,169 publications

References 30 publications

Recombinant Uncertainty in Technological Search

Recombinant Uncertainty in Technological Search

Specialization and Variety in Repetitive Tasks: Evidence from a Japanese Bank

Learning from My Success and from Others' Failure: Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

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