People-Focused Knowledge Sharing Initiatives in Medium-High and High Technology Companies: Organizational Facilitating Conditions and Impact on Innovation and Business Competitiveness

Introduction

Since the last decade, the study of knowledge has been one of the most important topics in the management arena (Nonaka, 1991; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Davenport & Prusak, 1998). Indeed, we are supposed to live in a “knowledge economy”, where intangible assets – and knowledge in particular – are the key sources for value creation (Brooking, 1996; Edvinsson & Malone, 1997; Stewart, 1997).

This idea is clearly reinforced by the existing relationship between knowledge creation and innovation (Nonaka, 1991; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). In today’s economy, innovation is one of the main driving forces behind business competitiveness (Drucker, 1988; Shapiro & Varian, 1998; Sveiby, 1997). Along these lines, it is generally assumed that innovation depends on the accumulation and development of relevant knowledge of a wide variety (Fischer, 2001).

For new knowledge to be created, knowledge sharing between individuals is the key (Nonaka, 1991; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka, von Krogh & Voelpel, 2006). As a consequence, the study of different mechanisms and initiatives which could facilitate knowledge sharing represents an extremely relevant research topic. Many of these mechanisms take advantage of information and communication technologies (i.e. they are “IT-based” – Dalkir, 2005; Davenport, 2007) whereas, in other cases, personal interaction between individuals is the key (i.e. “people-focused” knowledge management; Wiig, 2004). A review of early literature on knowledge management gives clear proof of the prevalence of information technology (IT) focused research in this domain (Swan, Robertson & Nevell, 2001).

Taking this into consideration, the focus of this chapter will be on people-focused knowledge sharing (i.e. the type of knowledge sharing which involves personal or “face-to-face” interaction). In particular, the organizational conditions that foster the development of different people-focused knowledge sharing initiatives (e.g. communities of practice, coaching, mentoring, employee functional rotation and other initiatives for knowledge sharing with external stakeholders) will be analysed, as well as the degree of influence of those initiatives on the ideation stage of innovation processes. Finally, considering that successful innovation is the one that helps to improve business competitiveness, the degree of influence of this innovation capability dimension on company performance will be examined. In other words, it is assumed that business competitiveness is related to superior performance (Cantwell, 2005).

Given their special focus on innovation, their extremely high knowledge intensity, and the degree of complexity of the knowledge being dealt with, medium-high and high technology companies will be under scrutiny in this research. As a result, these companies will be provided with a basic framework in order to shape their knowledge management strategies and in order to enhance their capability for generating new ideas and developing successful innovation.