Intra and Inter-Organizational Knowledge Transfer Processes Identifying the Missing Links

Markus C. Becker and Mette Præst Knudsen

No 06-32, DRUID Working Papers from DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies

Abstract: Inspired by the resource- and knowledge-based views, much attention has been focused on knowledge transfer as a process of strategic importance. Still, many open questions regarding knowledge transfer processes need to be addressed to complete our understanding. For instance, what are the barriers to knowledge transfer, and what are the facilitators? A review of the literature reveals that it is divided into two streams: articles on intra-firm knowledge flows and articles on inter-firm knowledge flows. Part of the incompleteness of our understanding of knowledge transfer processes, we argue, derives from the fact that it is unclear in which way intra- and inter-firm knowledge flows are different. The paper investigates three questions: first, how knowledge transfer is defined differently in intra- and inter-firm knowledge flows; second: how barriers to knowledge transfer processes differ; and thirdly: what we need to know to be able to formulate a management view of organizational knowledge flows, whether intra- or inter-organizational. The concluding section argues five research questions whose answers may enable research to formulate a management view of knowledge flows.

Keywords: Review; internal knowledge flows; external knowledge flows; definition; barriers to knowledge flows (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 L20 L22 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ino, nep-knm and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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