Session Summary

Session Number:193
Session ID:S60
Session Title:Replicating Knowledge for Competitive Advantage (Knowledge)
Short Title:Replicating Knowledge (K)
Session Type:Showcase Symposium
Hotel:Hyatt West
Floor:LL1
Room:Water Tower
Time:Tuesday, August 10, 1999 2:00 PM - 3:20 PM

Sponsors

BPS  (Ming-Jer Chen)BPS99@wharton.upenn.edu (215) 898-0018 
TIM  (Deborah Dougherty)doughert@business.rutgers.edu (973) 353-1664 
OMT  (Joseph Porac)j-porac@staff.uiuc.edu (217) 244-7969 

General People

Chair Szulanski, Gabriel  U. of Pennsylvania szulanski@wharton.upenn.edu 215-573-9627 
Chair Winter, Sidney G. U. of Pennsylvania winter@wharton.upenn.edu (215) 898-4140 

Submissions

Knowledge Transfer Within the Firm: A Replication Perspective on Internal Stickiness 
Presenter Szulanski, Gabriel  U. of Pennsylvania szulanski@wharton.upenn.edu 215-573-9627 
Presenter Winter, Sidney G. U. of Pennsylvania winter@wharton.upenn.edu (215) 898-4140 
Hurdles in Replicating Knowledge Across Organization Subunits: A Search-Transfer Perspective 
Presenter Hansen, Morten T. Harvard U. mhansen@hbs.edu (617)-495-5590 
Interorganizational Learning, Barriers to Intra-firm Knowledge Transfers, and Competitive Advantage 
Presenter Dyer, Jeffrey H. U. of Pennsylvania dyer@wharton.upenn.edu 215 898-9371 
Imitation, Replication, and Complexity 
Presenter Rivkin, Jan W. Harvard U. jrivkin@hbs.edu (617) 495-6690 

Abstract

Organizations thrive in large part on the strength of their knowledge assets, not their physical capital alone. Accordingly, a critical task of executives is to manage knowledge--to create and obtain knowledge, to disseminate it throughout the organization, to apply it effectively, and to protect and defend it. This symposium looks in depth at one particular aspect of the knowledge management challenge: the replication of knowledge within the organization. The constituent papers examine how organizations reproduce, or often fail to reproduce, valuable knowledge. Drawing on diverse theories and methods, the papers explore both the hurdles to knowledge replication and the competitive consequences of those hurdles. The symposium focuses narrowly on the replication of knowledge. In doing so, however, it aims to shed light on issues of broader interest to management scholars. Specifically, the symposium addresses how firms leverage idiosyncratic assets such as knowledge and how they protect such assets from rivals.