Marjorie A. Lyles

Inter- and Intra-Organizational Knowledge Transfer: A Meta-Analytic Review and Assessment of its Antecedents and Consequences

Research on organizational knowledge transfer is burgeoning, and yet our understanding of its antecedents and consequences remains rather unclear. Although conceptual and qualitative reviews of the organizational knowledge transfer literature have emerged, no study has attempted to summarize previous quantitative empirical findings. As a first step towards that goal, we use meta-analytic techniques to examine how knowledge, organization and network level antecedents differentially impact organizational knowledge transfer. Additionally, we consolidate research on the relationship between knowledge transfer and its consequences. We also demonstrate how the intra- and inter-organizational context, the directionality of knowledge transfers, and measurement characteristics moderate the relationships studied. By aggregating and consolidating existing research, our study not only reveals new insights into the levers and outcomes of organizational knowledge transfer, but also provides meaningful directions for future research.

The Blackwell handbook of organizational learning and knowledge management

Organizado em duas partes, este livro trata da aprendizagem organizacional e das organizações de aprendizagem sob a perspectiva técnica e social. Na primeira parte, os artigos trazem importante contribuição ao apontar dificuldades e limitações à construção do campo teórico e ao realizar uma revisão crítica da literatura existente. Já a segunda parte reúne estudos práticos de implementação da aprendizagem organizacional em ambientes organizacionais, com base em diversas metodologias de intervenção, mesclando teoria e prática.Once upon a time the publication of an edited handbook constituted a landmark event that brought together the worlds leading authorities within a major field of study to map out the territory, reflect comprehensively on the main theoretical, methodological, and empirical developments that had occurred from the fields inception, drawing out, where necessary and appropriate, the implications for practice, and giving clear pointers to where the field might move next, say, over the coming two decades or so. Dunnettes (1976) handbook, which remains a citation classic some thirty years on (despite there having been a four-volume second edition little over a decade ago) is in many ways a prototypical exemplar of handbooks falling within this genre, as is Marchs (1965) handbook, which made the initial statement of what organization theory is.

Inter-Organizational Knowledge Transfer: Current Themes and Future Prospects

Many papers have been published recently in the fields of strategy and international business research incorporating the role of organizational knowledge as a basis of firm competitive advantage. While such knowledge is normally developed within the firm, it is important that firms possess the ability to learn from others in order to meet the increasing pace of competition. Knowledge transfer, defined here as an event through which one organization learns from the experience of another, has thus become an important research area within the broader domain of organizational learning and knowledge management. This paper presents a theoretical framework, identifies key themes covered by the six articles included in the Special Issue on Inter-Organizational Knowledge Transfer, and then discusses priorities for future research.

Absorbing the Concept of Absorptive Capacity: How to Realize Its Potential in the Organization Field

The purpose of this perspective paper is to advance understanding of absorptive capacity, its underlying dimensions, its multilevel antecedents, its impact on firm performance, and the contextual factors that affect absorptive capacity. Twenty years after the Cohen and Levinthal 1990 paper, the field is characterized by a wide array of theoretical perspectives and a wealth of empirical evidence. In this paper, we first review these underlying theories and empirical studies of absorptive capacity. Given the size and diversity of the absorptive capacity literature, we subsequently map the existing terrain of research through a bibliometric analysis. The resulting bibliometric cartography shows the major discrepancies in the organization field, namely that (1) most attention so far has been focused on the tangible outcomes of absorptive capacity; (2) organizational design and individual level antecedents have been relatively neglected in the absorptive capacity literature; and (3) the emergence of absorptive capacity from the actions and interactions of individual, organizational, and interorganizational antecedents remains unclear. Building on the bibliometric analysis, we develop an integrative model that identifies the multilevel antecedents, process dimensions, and outcomes of absorptive capacity as well as the contextual factors that affect absorptive capacity. We argue that realizing the potential of the absorptive capacity concept requires more research that shows how “micro-antecedents” and “macro-antecedents” influence future outcomes such as competitive advantage, innovation, and firm performance. In particular, we identify conceptual gaps that may guide future research to fully exploit the absorptive capacity concept in the organization field and to explore future fruitful extensions of the concept.

Explaining IJV survival in a transitional economy through social exchange and knowledge-based perspectives

In this study, we combine social exchange and knowledge-based perspectives to develop a general path model of IJV survival. We further refine our expectations by considering the transitional economic context of our study and the somewhat unique managerial values resulting from the legacy of Marxist ideology. Results from structural equation modeling suggest that an imbalance in the management control structure between the parents leads to parental conflict and an increased likelihood of IJV failure. An imbalance in the ownership control structure, however, had no influence on conflict or survival. In general, support from the foreign parent is positively related to IJV learning and IJV survival. However, higher levels of technical support provided by the foreign parent to the IJV reduced the level of parental conflict, whereas management support had no effect on conflict. Our results suggest some dilemmas for firms pursuing IJVs in transitional economies. Although the foreign parent often contributes critical resources to the IJV, providing it with bargaining power and a high level of influence, an imbalance in management control between the partners may ultimately be detrimental to IJV survival. Copyright

Dynamic Capabilities: Current Debates and Future Directions

The field of dynamic capabilities has developed very rapidly over the last ten years. In this paper we discuss the evolution of the concept, and identify two major current debates around the nature of dynamic capabilities and their consequences. We then review recent progress as background to identifying the contributions of the seven papers in this special issue, and discuss the relative merits of qualitative and quantitative studies for investigating dynamic capabilities. We conclude with recommendations for future research arguing for more longitudinal studies which can examine the processes of dynamic abilities over time, and for studies in diverse industries and national contexts.

Organizational Problem Formulation: An Empirical Study.

March 1980, volume 25 This article represents an exploratory study of the process of problem formulation in organizations and of factors that influence the process. The following questions are addressed: (1) how do organizations become aware of the existence of problems and in what kinds of problems is the process important; (2) what process do organizations go through to formulate definitions of problems; (3) what impact do attitudes and demographic characteristics of individual managers have upon the problem-formulation process; and (4) what are some of the major emergent themes that characterize problem formulation in organizations?

Venture Survival in a Transitional Economy

Many formerly controlled economies have undergone discontinuous transformations in their approach to markets, institutional environments, and the role of government in economic activity. We study the factors that affect venture survival in a transitional economy through a two-stage study of private ventures in Hungary. We find that ventures survive under uncertainty, even without significant government support. Industry experience, networking activities, and the strategic orientation of the firms predict survival. Contrary to our predictions, SOE experience, access to infrastructure, and differentiation strategies do not significantly differentiate survivors.

All Supply Chains Don't Flow Through: Understanding Supply Chain Issues in Product Recalls

Our paper conceptualizes and highlights the role of the supply chains in Chinas product recall problems. We raise questions about the interrelationships of the focal manufacturer and the supplier firms and the consequences of these relationships. We address some of the causes of the current situation, including a discussion of deep supply chains, the importance of relationships, the role of trust and the impact of cultural misunderstandings. We suggest many future research questions to further understand how the supply chain can cause or deter product recalls.

Constructing contributions to organizational learning: Argyris and the next generation

This special issue of Management Learning provides the opportunity to reflect on the contribution over the past 30 years of Chris Argyris to the field of organizational learning and on some implications for future research. In order to do this we will reconsider his work against the context of other research that has been done over this period. This special issue therefore contains two items generated by Argyris himself: a commentary piece on the papers that are included here and an interview. The interview is part of a celebration event organized by Management Learning to honour Chris Argyris as a ‘Timeless Learner’ and to celebrate his 80th birthday, and Elena Antonacopoulou, who conducted this interview, presents the main insights from Chris Argyris’ scholarship. In this opening paper we focus on the nature of ‘contribution’ in relation to organizational learning, and this leads into an introduction to the six papers that comprise the core of the special issue.