Vignesh Yoganathan

Transferring social marketing knowledge through third sector CoPs

This paper investigates how knowledge of marketing techniques is acquired by third sector organisations (TSOs) through the activities of individuals who participate in various communities within a range of public and private organisations as well as TSOs. A Communities of Practice (CoP) framework is employed to investigate and develop an appreciation of the transfer of marketing knowledge within a case study community of TSOs. The findings suggest that community knowledge resources are enriched by the boundary spanning activities of dedicated facilitators and well-resourced members, who through engagement with external organisations acquire new knowledge and translate it into a form that can be transferred and absorbed by other community members. To our knowledge, no other papers published in the marketing literature have utilised the CoPs framework to illustrate the transfer of marketing knowledge in the third sector.