Knowledge, knowledge dynamics, and innovation

Laurent Scaringella

European Journal of Innovation Management, 2016, vol. 19, issue 3, 337-361

Abstract: Purpose - – Knowledge is a strategic resource for firms and it can enable them to achieve competitive advantage. Large companies engaged in internationalization pay particular attention to knowledge as a source of innovation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate current debates in the field: the first is about cumulative vs composite knowledge; the second concerns the degree of diversity and redundancy in knowledge-based dynamics; and the third debate is about incremental vs radical innovation. Design/methodology/approach - – The authors have used an inductive approach to perform a longitudinal case study of multinational corporation-semiconductor (MNC-SC). Total of 13 interviews were conducted over a four-year period. The MNC-SC case study has given the opportunity to analyse knowledge resources, knowledge, and innovation processes in a context of internationalization. Findings - – The findings indicate that in order to achieve technological innovation in a context of internationalization, the company builds knowledge in a cumulative fashion, which can create a path dependency problem. To ensure complementarity between cross-functional teams located long distances from one another, and maximize the utilization of resources, MNC-SC must establish common standards. To maximize returns from composite knowledge, in a context of internationalization, knowledge diversity is preferable over redundancy. However, true knowledge transfer, sharing, and learning are limited. Combinatorial and incremental innovation through internationalization is a process based on trial and error; it maximizes technological performance and enables the company to fulfil needs without diverging from the technological trajectory of the SC industry. Originality/value - – The internationalization process revealed limitations: limited understanding of the content of each knowledge module, competency traps, limited innovativeness, and therefore limited wealth creation.

Keywords: Knowledge; Diversity; Redundancy; Innovation; Internationalization; Case studies; Multinational corporation; Semiconductor industry; Cumulative knowledge; Incremental innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ejimpp:ejim-05-2015-0031

DOI: 10.1108/EJIM-05-2015-0031

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Innovation Management is currently edited by Dr Vincenzo Corvello

More articles in European Journal of Innovation Management from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().