Innovation Link Between Organization Knowledge and Customer Knowledge

Abstract

In 1959 Penrose referred to the importance of knowledge for using resources more innovatively and profitably, and in the same year Drucker indicated greater value should be placed on knowledge workers. An article by Nonaka (1991) suggested that the source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. Since then there has been a growing interest in knowledge, and an emerging view that the sharing of knowledge and creation of new knowledge leading to innovations is the key to providing future economic growth. In 1998, Amidon referred to the survey in 1996 produced by The Economist describing how rich economies will increasingly depend upon “their ability to innovate” (p. 24).