Knowledge-centric capabilities : a configurational approach

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:During the past 15 years knowledge management has emerged as a key new organisationalpractice with numerous organisations implementing processes aimed at facilitatingknowledge creation, integration and sharing. With knowledge management positioned as astrategic imperative, numerous studies have explored its resource-base and managementalternatives. These studies have played an important role in establishing knowledgemanagement as a field of inquiry within the business sciences, but a number of weaknessesput knowledge management at risk of becoming another passing fad. Previous research tendsto prescribe a tool, method or way of looking at knowledge while disregarding anydifferences in organisational context and displaying little attempt to differentiateorganisations in a meaningful way. This assumed homogeneity constitutes a deficiency inknowledge management research.The knowledge-based view of the firm emphasises distinct knowledge as the key source offirm heterogeneity, and the role of the organisation as that of knowledge creation. This viewlargely ignores the personal and social nature of knowledge, and the role of the firm inproviding the organisational context for creating, sharing and integrating knowledge.Knowledge management, as an embodiment of the knowledge-based view, thus also fails toexplore organisational context as a possible source of competitive advantage, thereby limitingthe potential of knowledge management initiatives.The central theme of the study is that the capacity to provide an institutional context for thecreation, sharing and integration of knowledge, henceforth the knowledge-centric capability,rather than distinct knowledge, is the key strategic resource of the organisation. The objectiveof the study therefore is to understand how different knowledge-centric capabilities configurein different organisational contexts. The objective is achieved by addressing three researchquestions, namely what dimensions can be used to describe a knowledge-centric capability,what configurations of knowledge-centric capabilities emerge in different organisationalcontexts, and why do specific configurations of knowledge-centric capabilities emerge inspecific organisational contexts?Considering the philosophical foundations of the study, namely knowledge as personal, socialand context-specific and the organisation as an open, adaptive system, the study follows asocial constructionist research philosophy. The study's focus on identifying emerging patterns or configurations of knowledge-centriccapabilities necessitates a configurational research approach. This allows the study to movebeyond uncovering relationships that hold across all organisations, affording the opportunityto identify multi-dimensional constellations of conceptually distinct characteristics thatcommonly occur together.A sequential mixed-method research methodology is employed to address the researchobjective and research questions. First a conceptual framework is developed from the extantliterature in order to identify the dimensions of a knowledge-centric capability. Next a theorydrivensurvey, based on the dimensions of the conceptual framework, is employed to obtaindata from which the configurations of knowledge-centric capabilities are derived usingcluster analysis. Finally, four case studies are presented to explain the emergence of theconfigurations within specific organisational contexts.This research is important for two main reasons. First, it addresses the identified shortcomingof existing research by providing a mechanism to explore an organisation's knowledgecentriccapability following a context-sensitive approach. Second, the research demonstratesthat knowledge-centric capabilities can indeed be used to differentiate between organisationsat a strategic level.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University