Knowledge of the firm, combinative capabilities, and the replication of technology

“However, in the context of the dynamic capability discussed in this section, the ability to integrate and combine assets including knowledge is a core skill (Kogut and Zander, 1992; Grant, 1996).”

“This is an important and relatively new perspective on the theory of the firm currently being formalized through the ongoing work of these (Kogut & Zander, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996; Zander & Kogut, 1995) and several other authors (Boisot, 1995; Conner & Prahalad, 1996; Loasby, 1991; Nonaka &…”

“Information includes facts, axiomatic propositions, and symbols" ( Kogut & Zander, 1992: 386).”

“Tacitness could also be a property of collectively held knowledge (Winter, 1987; Kogut and Zander, 1992 ) and it is often singled out as a central attribute of knowledge with respect to its transferability (Spender, 1993; Nonaka, 1994; Grant, 1996).”

“…to note that only a small fraction of articulable knowledge is actually articulated, and that organizations differ substantially on the degree to which they transform potentially articulable knowledge into articulated statements (Winter, 1987; Kogut and Zander, 1992; Cowan, et. al., 2000).”

“In addition, organizational knowledge and expertise must be shared [64, 69, 71].”

“This ability of the firm to "generate new combinations of existing knowledge" and "to exploit its knowledge of the unexplored potential of the technology" is what Kogut and Zander (1992, p. 391) describe as "combinative capabilities".”

“More generally, Kogut (2000) builds on a series of papers (e.g., Kogut and Zander 1992, 1996; Walker, Kogut, and Shan 1997; Kogut and Walker 2001) to propose a network theory of the firm in which value is derived from a firm’s ability to create and lay claim to knowledge derived from its own…”

“In distinguishing between the resource-sharing and knowledge-spillover benefits of collaboration, it is important to distinguish between know-how and information (Kogut and Zander, 1992).”

“In addition, research on the knowledge-based view of the firm has suggested that social networks facilitate the creation of new knowledge within organizations (e.g., Kogut & Zander, 1992; Tsai, 2000).”

“…spite of arguments to the contrary (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995), the fields of knowledge management (Conner & Prahalad, 1996; Davenport & Prusak, 1997; Foss, 1996; Grant, 1996; Kogut & Zander, 1992) and intellectual capital (Edvinsson & Malone, 1997; Stewart, 1997) remain largely focused on cognition.”

“For both researchers and practitioners, much of this intense interest is driven by the recognition that knowledge is a critical factor in creating competitive success over time (Kogut and Zander 1992, Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995).”

“In their exploration of the same question, Kogut and Zander (1992) contrast the sociological units of the great nineteenth-century trio Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.”

“And Kogut and Zander (1992) comment as follows:”

“…reconfigure the firm’s resource base by shedding idle or decaying resources (Sirmon & Hitt, 2003), or recombining resources in innovative ways that develop virtually new substantive capabilities in existing or new market arenas (Kogut & Zander, 1992; Schumpeter, 1942; Sirmon, Hitt & Ireland, 2006).”

“This argument is consistent with dynamic capability theory (Kogut and Zander, 1992; Teece et al., 1997).”

“1 Syntactic Boundary: Transferring Knowledge The most common label used to describe the movement of knowledge in organizations is “knowledge transfer” (Winter, 1987; Kogut and Zander, 1992; Nonaka, 1994; Szulanski, 1996; Argote, 1999).”

“These scholars place less of a premium on acquisition and ownership of resources and more emphasis on how the resource is used within the firm (Amit & Schoemaker, 1993; Kogut & Zander, 1992; Nonaka, 1994).”

“1969; Selznick 1957), organizational routine (Nelson and Winter 1982), architectural knowledge (Henderson and Clark 1990), core competence (Prahalad and Hamel 1990), core capability and rigidity (Leonard-Barton 1992), combinative capability (Kogut and Zander 1992) and architectural competence (Henderson and Cockburn 1…”

“important challenge for managers ( Kogut & Zander 1992 ).”

“Such ability has been termed ‘combinative capability’ (Kogut and Zander, 1992), ‘dynamic capability’ (Teece, Pisano, and Shuen, 1997), and ‘architectural competence’ (Henderson and Cockburn, 1994).”

“Knowledge acquisition and new product development Organizations learn and create innovations through knowledge communication and combination (Schumpeter, 1934; Kogut and Zander, 1992).”

“According to this theory inventions are very commonly the result of combining or recombining existing elements of knowledge into new syntheses (Henderson and Clark, 1990; Kogut and Zander, 1992; Tushman and Rosenkopf, 1992; Fleming 1999).”

“…with those of an extensive network of component developers, thereby increasing the absorptive capacity of the firm (Cohen and Levinthal , 1990) and its potential for realizing the full combinative capabilities (Bartlett, 1993; Kogut and Zander, 1992) of the firm's current architectural knowledge.”

“Disadvantages A further point relates to the similarity of knowledge bases and ow they facilitate the integration of ideas from distant realms Kogut and Zander, 1992), because shared languages, common orms and cognitive configurations enable communication (Cohen nd Levinthal, 1990). Incorporating knowledge bases too c…”

“Elements of similar knowledge facilitate the integration of the acquired and acquiring knowledge bases (Kogut and Zander, 1992; Grant, 1996).”

“…addition to prior knowledge resources (e.g., Verona, 1999), units need to develop organizational capabilities, defined as combinative capabilities (Kogut & Zander, 1992), that enable them to synthesize and apply current and newly acquired external knowledge (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000; Kogut &…”

“At the same time, however, externally acquired knowledge has to be absorbed and integrated to realize its potential (Cohen and Levinthal 1990, Kogut and Zander 1992).”

“Subsequently, a great deal of theoretical work began to emerge regarding the types of processes to which resources must be subjected in order to exploit their latent value, such as core capabilities (LeonardBarton, 1992), competences (Fiol, 1991; Reed and DeFillippi, 1990), combinative capabilities (Kogut and Zander,…”

“Individual learning and new knowledge creation occur when people combine and exchange their personal knowledge with others ( Kogut and Zander, 1992; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998).”

“Early research on strategic alliances focused on their capability to enhance organizational learning (Kogut & Zander, 1992).”

“Winter's (1987) and Kogut and Zander's (1992) work initiated a line of inquiry in strategic management often referred to as the " knowledge-based view of the firm " (e.g., von Krogh et al. 1994, Spender and Grant 1996, Tsoukas 1996, Spender 1996, Szulanski 1996, Gupta and Govindarajan…”

“An important research question in the area of knowledge transfer is how to manage the tension between facilitating the internal transfer of knowledge within organizations while preventing is external leakage or spillover outside the organization (Kogut & Zander, 1992).”

“…the firm as a bundle of resources and knowledge linked together through firm-specific routines that are the source of competitive advantage (e.g., Barney 1991, Madhok 1996) and as a unique shared context that enables knowledge sharing to facilitate productive activities (Kogut and Zander 1992).”

“These primarily include perspectives from the resource-based view (Wernerfelt, 1984; Barney, 1991), dynamic capabilities (Teece, Pisano, and Shuen, 1997), evolutionary economics (Nelson and Winter, 1982), and the emerging literature on organizational learning and the knowledge-based view of the firm ( Kogut and Zander…”

“Despite the advantages to moving knowledge inside the firm rather than across firm boundaries (Kogut and Zander, 1992), exchanging, integrating, and creating knowledge can be extraordinarily difficult (Dougherty, 1992; Carlile, 2002).”

“Complex and causally ambiguous knowledge could be inert in which case its transfer will require re-construction and adaptation at the receiving end of the transfer (e.g., Attewell 1992; Kogut & Zander 1992).”

“Organizational networks for innovation challenge the conventional wisdom on the boundaries of the firm (Pisano, 1990), given the complexity of sharing tacit knowledge across firm boundaries while developing effective antidotes for opportunistic behavior (Ahuja, 2000; Kogut & Zander, 1992).”

“(5) Producing a good or service typically requires the application of many types of knowledge (Kogut and Zander, 1992).”

“While tacit knowledge is clearly an element of the work of occupational communities (Polanyi 1958, 1967; Kogut and Zander 1992), this study demonstrates that the manner in which people communicated impacted the incorporation of knowledge into the work of others.”

“Organizations innovate, in part, through combinations of existing and new knowledge ( Kogut and Zander 1992 ).”

“The proposition that the RBV could be considered a new theory of the firm was put on the agenda by Conner (1991) and Kogut and Zander (1992).”

“Some authors distinguished between the two terms (e.g., Blackler, 1995; Davenport & Prusak, 1998; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Pemberton, 1998), whereas others used both terms synonymously (e.g., Kogut & Zander, 1992; Stewart, 1997).”

“Integrative capabilities allow firms to absorb knowledge from external sources and blend the different technical competencies developed in various company departments (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990; Grant, 1996; Henderson & Clark, 1990; 00042.p65 09/29/2001, 4:40 PM379 Kogut & Zander, 1992; Pisano, 1997).”

“…knowledge, are antecedents of innovation (Baker and Sinkula, 1999; Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Coombs and Hull, 1998; Darroch and McNaugton, 2002; Hage, 1999; Kogut and Zander, 1992; Leonard-Barton, 1999; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Nooteboom, 1999; Sørensen and Stuart, 2000; Stata, 1989).”

“Landmark work published in 1992 and 1993 further advanced and delineated key elements of the RBV (Amit & Schoemaker, 1993; Kogut & Zander, 1992; Mahoney & Pandian, 1992; Peteraf, 1993).”

“A widely held view has been that intangible knowledge is likely to be harder for competitors to access and copy and so this type of knowledge provides greater potential for developing competitive advantages (Foss, 1996; Kogut and Zander, 1992; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995).”

“In this case, in countries with relatively low political hazards, the dominant effect of high technological capabilities is to provide incentives for partnering with other Žsimilar firms so as to foster learning and capability development Kogut and Zander, 1992, .1993, 1996 .”

“One result of such a deeper understanding is that the firm will become more capable of initiating various reconfigurations of existing knowledge and resources already under its control, capabilities associated with novel discoveries in products and markets (Fleming, 2001; Kogut & Zander, 1992).”

“14 which is by definition difficult to communicate and to trade in markets (Kogut and Zander, 1992).”

“essentially avoid knowledge transfer (Demsetz, 1988; Conner, 1991; Conner 1996), emphasizing the firm’s capacity to exercise authority in directing others’ other view claims that hierarchies exist instead to facilitate knowledge transfer ( Kogut and Zander, 1992; 1996; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998), emphasizing th”

“Most arguments regarding the benefit of complementary knowledge sources for innovation success have to do with the idea that innovation proceeds through recombination of existing knowledge (see e.g., Kogut and Zander 1992; Nonaka 1994).”

“The second stream has been more dynamic, emphasizing how knowledge, and especially new knowledge, leads to the generation of novel organizational outcomes, such as new products (Kogut & Zander, 1992).”