Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at some of the factors that in?uence the transfer of tacit knowledge between two product development partners
Design/methodology/approach – Research involvedthe collectionof both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data was based on 13 interviews with various individuals, representing three companies, charged with integrating external technology. The quantitative portion of the data was collected through an online survey. The survey was executed by soliciting responses from managers of 39discreetprojectsinvolvingvarioustypesofexternaltechnologyintegration,representing?vedifferent companies.
Findings – The paper provides evidence that trust, early involvement, and due diligence in?uence the extent of meeting technology transfer expectations and tacit knowledge transfer expectations. It also ?nds that the subject of tacit knowledge transfer, content and process, is poorly understood. While managers and project leaders saw the value of tacit knowledge, there were different perceptions of the goals successful knowledge transfer and a lack of processes to manage its process. While project managers may feel that they have tacit knowledge transfer in hand, they have not managed to transfer the knowledge needed for long-term product management.
Research limitations/implications – There are a number of limitations affecting the scope of these ?ndings. For one, our survey respondents were all project or product managers. Future research should include a broader base of participants, both horizontally and vertically. Second, interviews and surveys were con?ned to a total of ?ve US companies in three industries. Future research would bene?t from a largersamplesize,aswellasgreatersamplediversityintermsof?rmsize,industry,andculturalcontext. Lastly, the measure of tacit knowledge transfer needs additional validation.
Practicalimplications – The paperoffers severalrecommendations to help managers begin to think of tacit knowledge as an independent entity and manage it accordingly.
Originality/value – This paper offers empirical support for some of the factors that in?uence the extent ofmeetingtechnologyandtacitknowledgetransferexpectations.Moreover,itoffersauniquemodelthat highlight show different level so fan organizational hierarchy are governed by signi?cantly different goals and expectations with regard to tacit knowledge transfer. |