Abstract
It has recently become very popular among academics to study the process of knowledge transfer within their own organization, with the aim of improving their innovation and performance on a general scope. Knowledge can be divided into two main groups: “explicit” and “tacit” knowledge. The main interest lies in tacit knowledge, since it is one that includes the specific “know-how” of an organization. The cooperation between the different units of an organization promotes the transfer of knowledge between the different organizational areas and positions the departments in an ideal situation to promote innovation. To understand the evolution of the scientific production in terms of innovation and knowledge up until now, the authors conducted a bibliometric analysis of research on this topic collected on the Web of Science. The results show a growing interest in the relationship of both topics due to the fact that the number of publications is an upward trend.
TopIntroduction
Recently, both innovation and knowledge have become enormously interesting to academics and professionals who are looking to make use of their fundamental concepts (Gaviria-Marin et al., 2019; Suominen et al., 2019). Especially companies’ survival in the 21st century depend on knowledge, information systems and innovative strategy. However, Tushman & Nadler (1986) some decades ago already stated that competitive advantage could be obtained not only by managing effectively today resources and capabilities, but also creating innovation for tomorrow.
The existing relationship between the creation of knowledge and the promotion of innovation in the organizations is a key issue in strategic terms and in the creation of a long-term sustainable advantage (Teece et al., 1997; Neirotti & Pesce, 2019). Thereupon, intangible assets are increasingly becoming the key asset of any business.
According to Grant (1996), knowledge represents most of the added value of an organization. In other words, it is one that understands the skills and “practical knowledge” of the production tasks of the organization (Grant, 1996). On the other hand, innovation is a way of creating knowledge in the sphere of an organization (Koo, 2019). The term innovation was primarily defined by Schumpeter (1935), although the concept has evolved over time and a number of other authors have contributed to the original definition. According to Schumpeter, innovation is product, process and organisational changes that originate from the difference in combination of existing resources and technologies. The application of these resources to different contexts is therefore understood as innovation (Urbancova, 2013).
Innovation cannot be defined only as the treatment of information and search for solutions to organizational problems, but rather, it is the process in which the company defines the problems it has to solve, to later offer a solution through the creation of new knowledge (Nonaka, 1994).
The departments within an organization can create synergies of knowledge among themselves and benefit from the knowledge developed by other areas. The cooperation and joint collaboration between the different units promotes the transfer of knowledge between the different organizational areas (Tsouri, 2019). This fact encourages at the same time the creation of synergies in terms of knowledge, and positions the departments in an ideal situation to promote innovation (Tsai, 2001, Kogut and Zander, 1992, Tsai and Ghoshal, 1998).
Organizations must guarantee the transfer of knowledge not only between different departments, but also between individuals. In this way, the creation of shared knowledge can be achieved as well as innovative proposals (Chiambaretto, Massé and Mirc, 2019; Cohendet et al., 1999, Jansen et al., 2005). In this sense, knowledge intermediaries called literally “knowledge brokers” are defined as key elements whose role is to act as an intermediary in the process of knowledge transfer between different units included within an organization (Hargadon and Sutton, 1997).
In addition, the exchange of knowledge is closely related to the company's performance and competitive advantage (Kogut and Zander, 1992; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995), and in particular to the capacity for innovation (Chiambaretto et al., 2019; Wijk et al., 2008).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Tacit Knowledge: it represents ways of proceeding, structures and inherent actions that are transferred among the members of an organization and determine the uniqueness of the organization. They are shared and extended through a socialization process, so they are not exposed explicitly. This fact makes imitation from competitors harder to achieve.
Absorptive capacity: It is the firm’s ability to identify new sources of knowledge and information and find the way to adopt these new methodologies in internal processes with the aim of applying it to better meeting customer’s requirements. Synergies are created through the sharing of knowledge and information, hence absorptive capacity utterly benefits from cumulativeness rather from punctual investments.
Innovation: It is the development of new ideas, creative activities and processes with the aim of addressing more efficiently to traditional issues. Innovation presents alternative procedures to offer better solutions to problems, meet new customer needs or new company’s requirements.
Web of Science: It is a scientific database developed by Clarivate Analytics with the aim of offering a complete and exhaustive search of the most relevant scientific works concerning a specific subject with a cross-disciplinary scope. It is an outstanding reference in the academia in terms of rigorous scientific works.
Knowledge: understanding of specific information and processes that are acquired through learning, experience, studying and/or sharing. In firms, knowledge could be understood as the sense of familiarity and awareness of the activities and dynamics of the corresponding organization.
Organizational learning: It is the process of acquiring, creating and transferring knowledge and information among the whole organization. Thus, the organization benefits from the shared experience, values and information transferred among their individual members, with the aim of achieving more efficient processes and create synergies at an interorganizational scope.
Bibliometric Analysis: It is a statistical tool which shows quantitatively the analysis of written publications. It consists on a review of the literature, indicating the number, evaluation and main trends of publications concerning a specific subject.
Explicit Knowledge: It is the academic obtained through education and academic accomplishment. It is based on the ‘‘know-what’’ that is described in formal language, expressed in written terms, printed or in electronic media. It is usually based on established work processes, organized and routine tasks. The most relevant different between explicit and tacit knowledge is that explicit one is evaluated based on tangible work accomplishment but not on creativity and knowledge sharing.