Governing strategy and knowledge: tools and methodologies
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Governing strategy and knowledge: tools and methodologies Carlo Bagnoli • Hanno Roberts
Published online: 13 December 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2011
Keywords
Strategy Knowledge Governance
1 Introduction to the JMG special issue The recent affirmation of a knowledge-based view of the firm (Nonaka 1994; Grant 1996; Spender 1996) stems from the increasing importance given to knowledge as the base resource to develop sustainable competitive advantage (Drew 1999). For example, Zack argues that a firm’s competitive strategy should be built around its knowledge-based resources, and that the actions a firm takes to manage knowledge gaps or surplus (e.g., building online document repositories, recruiting for particular skills) should be guided by a Knowledge Management (KM) strategy: ‘‘KM strategy guides and defines the processes and infrastructure (organizational and technological) for managing knowledge. KM strategy typically includes broad generic components (e.g., emphasizing tacit vs. explicit knowledge, knowledge exploration vs. exploitation, or organizational vs. technical mechanisms for knowledge exchange) as well as those that are firm specific’’ (Zack 2002: 270). It implied a revisit to the concept of Knowledge Management (KM), leading to the distinction of 1st generation and 2nd generation knowledge management initiatives. The first generation of knowledge management concerned itself with the C. Bagnoli (&) Department of Management, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, 873 Cannaregio, S. Giobbe, 30123 Venice, VE, Italy e-mail: [email protected] H. Roberts Department of Accounting, Auditing and Law, Norwegian School of Business, Nydalsveien 37, 0484 Oslo, Norway e-mail: [email protected]
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capture, codification, and diffusion of information, arguing that information is the raw material of knowledge and one has to start there. It emphasized the use of information and communication technologies as main vehicle, leading to a large variety of tools, instruments and approaches, ranging from internal bulleting boards, to corporate Yellow Pages of who knows what, to archiving and storing solutions. With the arrival of the second generation of knowledge management, emphasis has shifted towards the organisational aspects of knowledge. Having (permanent) access to knowledge and knowing who knows what, will only work when the overall organisation design allows, facilitates, and incentivates the sharing and the use of knowledge among its organisational members (Turchetti and Geisler, this issue). Consequently, the emphasis shifted from technology towards the context of (knowledge) use. This is not to say that technology stopped playing an important role but rather that its role became defined as a necessary but not a sufficient condition for competing on knowledge. The second generation of knowledge management typically addresses issues around (the design of) knowledge praxis, such as creating communities for knowledge sharing and emphasizing the social and networked in
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