Centre for Technology Management

Managing Technological Knowledge across Organisational Boundaries

This project is now complete.

This project developed a framework to support the management of technological knowledge across organizational boundaries. A literature review was used to bring together a wide ranging selection of innovation literature encompassing organizational, strategic and engineering perspectives on new product introduction and technology transfer with knowledge management. The resultant framework is structured in terms of barriers and enablers for the flow of technological knowledge in three main areas: the source and recipient (i.e. the organizational boundary), the organizational context and the nature of the technological knowledge transferred. It was proposed that flow will only be achieved when attention is paid to all three areas.

The assumptions behind the framework were then tested by carrying out semi-structured interviews with 18 people in 7 organizations from a range of sectors. This confirmed that organizational boundaries were seen as highly relevant in innovation projects due to the increasingly distributed nature of innovation. Based on the interview findings it is proposed that the framework be revised to recognise the nature of knowledge transfer as being based on information flow plus individual processing, and the dual nature of innovation in terms of exploitation and exploration activities. It is proposed that such a framework has a role to play in developing a practical approach to support companies wishing to manage technological knowledge more effectively.

Outputs

• Feasibility Study Report (July 2003)
• Conference Paper (IAMOT 2003)
• Academic-Industrial Event (Forum, April 2004)
• Final Research Report (August 2004, revised November 2004)
• Deliverables: Submitted Journal Paper, Models & Issues for Teaching, Checklist of Key Factors for Industry, Seminar for Industry

Sponsors/Collaborators

EPSRC (IMRC)

Researcher

Clare Farrukh