Session Summary

Session Number:188
Session ID:S54
Session Title:Creating and Mobilizing Knowledge within Organizations and Beyond: Evidence from the Field
Short Title:Knowledge Transfer
Session Type:Showcase Symposium
Hotel:Hyatt West
Floor:LL1
Room:Water Tower
Time:Monday, August 09, 1999 4:10 PM - 5:30 PM

Sponsors

BPS  (Ming-Jer Chen)BPS99@wharton.upenn.edu (215) 898-0018 
IM  (Farok Contractor)farok@andromeda.rutgers.edu (973) 353-5348 

General People

Chair Martin de Holan, Pablo  INCAE (Costa Rica) martin@mail.incae.ac.cr (011-506)437-2387 
Discussant Schulz, Martin  U. of Washington martinus@u.washington.edu (206) 543-4777 
Presenter Degroof, Jean-Jacques  Massachusetts Institute of Technology jjdegroof@ibm.net 1 (617) 868-7448 

Submissions

An Actor Perspective to Organizational Learning : Middle Managers as Enablers of Knowledge in Radical Change 
Presenter Huy, Quy  INSEAD quy.huy@insead.fr (33)1 60 72 40 00 
Memory Systems In Organizations 
Presenter Olivera, Fernando  U. of Western Ontario folivera@ivey.uwo.ca  (519) 661-3244 
The intra-firm transfer of contextual knowledge across borders: Barriers and solutions to adoption, diffusion and institutionalization of the U.S. practices into the Japanese and European environments in pharmaceutical companies 
Presenter Asakawa, Kazuhiro  Keio Business School asakawa@kbs.keio.ac.jp +81.45.564.2021 
Knowledge creation, circulation and maintenance in international strategic alliances. 
Presenter Martin de Holan, Pablo  INCAE (Costa Rica) martin@mail.incae.ac.cr (011-506)437-2387 

Abstract

The concept of knowledge has been presented as a useful complement to the resource-based view of the firm. In essence, it is argued that in competitive environments it is what firms know, not what they have, that makes a difference in their performance, particularly when that knowledge cannot be easily copied or replicated. In spite of its theoretical usefulness and intuitive appeal, the concept of organizational knowledge remains underdeveloped, and has not been fully tested empirically. In particular, studies of how firms create and mobilize knowledge (i.e. how they transfer, maintain and store it) are scarce; yet, these questions are essential elements of a theory of organizational knowledge. This symposium contributes to the new and expanding research stream on knowledge transfer, barriers to transfer, knowledge utilization, locus of knowledge production and knowledge roles in alliances by presenting and combining the findings of four empirical studies of knowledge and developing insights on how to continue such efforts.