Giovanni Schiuma

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER AND INTER-FIRM RELATIONSHIPS IN INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS : THE ROLE OF THE LEADER FIRM

Abstract In the literature, knowledge transfer is widely emphasized as a strategic issue for firm competition. In this paper, the knowledge transfer is investigated referring to customer–supplier relationships in industrial districts. The knowledge transfer process is described and a framework is provided to define the main components of the process. A model is proposed to analyse how a leader firm of an industrial district can modify the knowledge nature and adopt different types of supply relationship to increase the effectiveness of knowledge transfer. The model stresses that, when the knowledge transfer has to be fast and reliable between customer and supplier, knowledge has to be codified. However, as the codification level increases, knowledge can be easily shared with other district competitors. Then, the leader firm can also try to control the knowledge transfer by the reduction of the number of suppliers. Referring to the case of an industrial district, some considerations are made to show the practical implications of the knowledge control by the district leader firm.

The dynamics of value creation: mapping your intellectual performance drivers

The paper highlights the importance of visual representations of strategic intent in order to understand how organizational resources – especially intangible assets and intellectual capital – are used to create value. Based on the literature the paper provides a taxonomy of organizational value drivers. Grounded in the resource‐based view of the firm, which argues that organizational resources or assets are bundled together and interdependent, it then highlights shortcomings in the strategy map approach based on the balanced scorecard. The paper then introduces the value creation map that utilizes both direct and indirect dependencies to map value creation. It is suggested that this approach complements the strategy map approach by extending its view of value creation from direct to both direct and indirect dependencies. Subsequently, the paper presents a case study of how the value creation map was applied to understand the new product development process in a leading furniture manufacturing firm.

Intellectual capital – defining key performance indicators for organizational knowledge assets

Measuring intellectual capital is on the agenda of most 21st century organisations. This paper takes a knowledge‐based view of the firm and discusses the importance of measuring organizational knowledge assets. Knowledge assets underpin capabilities and core competencies of any organisation. Therefore, they play a key strategic role and need to be measured. This paper reviews the existing approaches for measuring knowledge based assets and then introduces the knowledge asset map which integrates existing approaches in order to achieve comprehensiveness. The paper then introduces the knowledge asset dashboard to clarify the important actor/infrastructure relationship, which elucidates the dynamic nature of these assets. Finally, the paper suggests to visualise the value pathways of knowledge assets before designing strategic key performance indicators which can then be used to test the assumed causal relationships. This will enable organisations to manage and report these key value drivers in todays economy.

The knowledge value chain: how intellectual capital impacts on business performance

This theoretical paper explores the fundamental issue of how knowledge management initiatives impact business performance. Reflecting on the management literature in the fields of knowledge management and performance management enabled the deduction of four basic assumptions, representing the links of a conceptual cause-and-effect framework – the knowledge value chain. Drawing on the resource-based view and the competence-based view of the firm, the paper identifies strategic, managerial, and operational dimensions of knowledge management. The review of performance management frameworks discusses the role of knowledge management in those models. These reflections allow linking knowledge management with core competencies, strategic processes, business performance, and finally, with value creation.

Knowledge assets value creation map

The paper presents an application of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology to support the complex decision making process concerning with the development of causal models showing how organisational knowledge assets contribute to create companys value. The research is grounded in the resource-based view of the firm, which argues that organisational resources are bundled together. This involves difficulties in understanding which are the most important knowledge assets and how they contribute to companys performance improvements. The application of the AHP allows to assess the weights for setting the priorities among knowledge assets against the companys performance targets. Adopting the AHP, the knowledge assets value creation map (KAVCM) is proposed as an approach to visualise and analyse the cause-and-effect relationships linking knowledge assets with companys performance. This allows to understand how to lever and drive knowledge assets in order to sustain companys value creation dynamics. The application of the KAVCM is, finally, tested by its application to the identification of the knowledge assets value drivers at the basis of NPD performance improvements within an Italian leader company operating in sofa industry.

THE INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL DIMENSIONS OF DUCATI'S TURNAROUND: EXPLORING KNOWLEDGE ASSETS GROUNDING A CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

Despite the growing awareness of the importance of researching core strategic resources and capabilities for supporting organisational change, the work that has been done to the date has rarely examined and taken into account the relevance of Intellectual Capital (IC) for the success of a companys strategic turnaround program. Moreover, little attention has been given on what encompasses IC and how it can be conceptualised and interpreted in a change management perspective.Through an extensive review of the literature on IC and along with a case study of the Ducati Motor Holding — one of the leading world brands in the sportive motorcycles manufacturing — this paper aims to bridge this gap first of all by identifying which are the key-knowledge assets involved in a turnaround program, and then focusing on the impact IC has on turnaround actions.Findings highlight important implications both for theory and practice, and reveal interesting relationships that suggest further effort should be placed on the development of a knowledge base-view of companys turnaround and on the analysis of the dynamics that links knowledge assets and successful change management programs.

Knowledge, learning, and innovation: research and perspectives

Purpose – This introduction paper to the special issue on “The twenty‐first century knowledge‐based value drivers of innovation and sustainable development” aims to focus on such relationships between knowledge, learning, capabilities, innovation and competitive advantage in different forms of organization: businesses, clusters and regions. The purpose is to point out the conceptual pillars and contribute to the ongoing debate on: how knowledge assets impact organizational performance, what are the characteristics of such value‐generating processes, what factors affect the process of building organizational capabilities and distinctive competences, and how organizations translate specific capabilities into sustainable competitive advantages.Design/methodology/approach – The article is based on a thorough analysis of the management literature addressing the nature, role and relevance of knowledge, organizational capabilities, learning and knowledge management for organization competitiveness. The conceptua...

Knowledge‐based capital in building regional innovation capacity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role and the relevance of knowledge‐based capital as a strategic resource and a source of regional innovation capacity. The paper identifies human, relational, structural and social capital as the four main knowledge‐based categories building the knowledge‐based capital of a region. The role of each knowledge‐based category in determining regional innovation capacity is analyzed. Specifically, the authors discuss the relationships among the knowledge‐based categories and a regional innovation capacity.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an in‐depth literature review of the knowledge management and regional innovation research stream. The fundamental underlying research questions that have driven the research are: “What are the knowledge‐based capital categories affecting a regions innovation capacity?” and “How do knowledge‐based categories influence regional innovation capacity?”. The paper is conceptual in its nature and aims to ...

The Knoware Tree and the Regional Intellectual Capital Index

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relevance of intellectual capital (IC) as a strategic resource and source of regional value creation dynamics. Adopting a knowledge‐based approach, the authors aim to argue that knowledge assets represent the ICs components, and the Knoware Tree and the Knoware Dashboard are proposed as frameworks to assess the IC within regions. For the global assessment of the IC, the Regional Intellectual Capital Index (RICI) is to be introduced and its application is proposed for the assessment of the IC within Italian regions. Finally, in order to explore the links between the IC ownership of a region and its value creation dynamics, the Value Creation Index (VCI) is adopted and linear correlations of the RICI and VCI are performed, providing first empirical evidences of the positive links between IC and value creation.Design/methodology/approach – The paper integrates the results of an intensive literature review with a longitudinal empirical research applie...

Managing knowledge for business performance improvement

Purpose – What is the role of managing knowledge within organizations? This is one of the fundamental research and practical questions which has animated and moved forward the rich scientific debate around the management of knowledge resources. This article aims to introduce the focus of the special issue. Its fundamental premise is that organizations invest their scarce resources only if these investments are capable of enhancing the business value creation capacity. Thus managers are interested in managing knowledge not for the sake of knowledge management, but because the planning, design, assessment and revision of the organizational knowledge resources and processes can support the business performance improvements.Design/methodology/approach – The selection of the articles collected in this special issue is largely based on the work of the conference “International Forum on Knowledge Assets Dynamics – IFKAD” which took place in June 2011 in Tampere, Finland. IFKAD gathers leading experts in the fiel...