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Article
Publication date: 9 October 2017

Xiangyang Wang, Yujuan Xi, Jingsi Xie and Yingxin Zhao

The purpose of this study is to adopt the perspective of congruence to explore how organizational unlearning facilitates knowledge transfer in cross-border mergers and…

1825

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to adopt the perspective of congruence to explore how organizational unlearning facilitates knowledge transfer in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on the congruence theory, this study built a theoretical model and examined it with survey data from 212 firms in China.

Findings

Organizational unlearning has no direct influence on knowledge transfer. In contrast, it promotes knowledge and routine compatibility that facilitate knowledge transfer. Routine and knowledge compatibility have different mechanisms on knowledge transfer. Specifically, the higher routine compatibility, the more effective is knowledge transfer. When knowledge compatibility is at a medium level, the effectiveness of knowledge transfer is optimal.

Practical implications

Firms should regard organizational unlearning as a crucial facilitator to knowledge and routine compatibility that promote knowledge transfer.

Originality/value

This study provides a specific understanding of the relationships between organizational unlearning and knowledge transfer by focusing on knowledge and routine compatibility as the crucial links, and enriches existing literature regarding knowledge transfer.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 21 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 January 2021

Ying Qi, Xiangyang Wang, Yujia Li, Gongyi Zhang and Huiqi Jin

The study adopts congruence theory to explore the structure of inter-organizational compatibility and its structural effects on knowledge transfer in cross-border merger and…

Abstract

Purpose

The study adopts congruence theory to explore the structure of inter-organizational compatibility and its structural effects on knowledge transfer in cross-border merger and acquisitions (M&As).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper built a moderated-mediation model that presented the relationship between inter-organizational compatibility and knowledge transfer. Regression analysis was conducted with 182 samples from China to examine the model and hypotheses.

Findings

The results indicate that inter-organizational compatibility is a four-dimensional construct comprising culture, strategy, routine and knowledge. Additionally, inter-organizational compatibility has structural effects on knowledge transfer. Specifically, routine compatibility mediates the relationships between cultural compatibility and knowledge transfer and between strategic compatibility and knowledge transfer. Moreover, the mediating roles are moderated by knowledge compatibility.

Originality/value

This study updates the construct and provides a comprehensive and fresh understanding of inter-organizational compatibility. Additionally, it presents the structural effects of inter-organizational compatibility on knowledge transfer.

Article
Publication date: 7 April 2015

Rebecca Ann Ranucci and David Souder

This paper aims to theorize how tacit knowledge influences implementation success in mergers and acquisitions (M & As), and contrasts this with explicit knowledge. Tacit…

2869

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to theorize how tacit knowledge influences implementation success in mergers and acquisitions (M & As), and contrasts this with explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge can be a source of sustained competitive advantage because its lack of codifiability precludes easy appropriation by competitors. However, such non-codifiability also makes it difficult to transfer knowledge within a firm. M & As exemplify this challenge because they are often motivated by opportunities for transferring knowledge. With differing demands for tacit and explicit knowledge across departments (Sales and Operations), the empirical results demonstrate how tacit routine compatibility affects implementation outcomes in different functions.

Design/methodology/approach

This research draws from a survey of 86 M & A implementation processes between 1996 and 2002, using seemingly unrelated regression to analyze the predictions.

Findings

There is strong empirical support that tacit routine compatibility leads to success in sales but not operations and further support for the differential moderating roles of trustworthiness and integration.

Practical implications

Managers should make implementation choices based on the type of knowledge being transferred and where that knowledge will reside post-integration. Routine compatibility, trustworthiness and integration facilitate knowledge transfer in M & As – but only if applied in the right combinations for the context.

Originality/value

The type of knowledge is a critical distinction for the value of M & A implementation. Furthermore, despite integration receiving significant attention in this literature, trustworthiness, not integration, facilitates successful tacit knowledge transfer in M & As.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 19 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 June 2019

Fei Li, Yan Chen and Yipeng Liu

This paper aims to examine how integration modes impact the acquirer knowledge diffusion capacity of overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&As) effected by emerging market firms and…

1080

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine how integration modes impact the acquirer knowledge diffusion capacity of overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&As) effected by emerging market firms and the role played by the global innovation network position of the acquiring firms in affecting this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Through the use of structural equation modelling and bootstrap testing, the hypotheses are tested by drawing upon a sample of 102 overseas M&As effected by listed Chinese manufacturing companies.

Findings

The results show that acquirers from emerging countries are unable to increase the knowledge diffusion capacity unless they choose the right post-merger integration mode. This paper also finds that the relationship between integration mode and knowledge diffusion is channelled through the centrality and structural holes of acquirers in the global innovation networks. When considering the combinations of different resource similarities and complementarities of the acquired firms, differences emerge in the integration model and network embedded path of acquirers in emerging countries.

Practical implications

Emerging market multinational enterprises should consider post-merger integration as a crucial facilitator to the crafting of global innovation network positions that promote knowledge diffusion. The choices of integration mode and brand management autonomy should be matched with the resource similarities and complementarities that exist between the acquirer and target firms.

Originality/value

Based on the resource orchestration theory and by focussing on network centrality and structural hole as the crucial links, this study provides a nuanced understanding of the relationship between post-merger integration and knowledge diffusion and sheds light on latecomer firms from emerging countries.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 23 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 August 2019

Geoffrey Wood and Christine Bischoff

The central purpose of this paper is to explore how implicit knowledge capabilities and sharing helps secure organizational survival and success. This article explores the…

1754

Abstract

Purpose

The central purpose of this paper is to explore how implicit knowledge capabilities and sharing helps secure organizational survival and success. This article explores the challenging in better management knowledge in the South African clothing and textile industry. In moving from a closed protected market supported by active industrial policy, South African manufacturing has faced intense competition from abroad. The ending of apartheid removed a major source of workplace tension, facilitating the adoption of higher value-added production paradigms. However, most South African clothing and textile firms have battled to cope, given cutthroat international competition. The authors focus on firms that have accorded particularly detailed attention to two instances characterized by innovative knowledge management. The authors highlight how circumstances may impose constraints and challenges and how they paradoxically also create opportunities, which may enable firms to survive and thrive through the recognition and utilization of informal knowledge, both individual and collective.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on in-depth interviews, primary company and industry association and secondary documents.

Findings

The study highlights how successful firms implemented systems, policies and practices for the better capturing and utilization of external and internal knowledge. In terms of the former, a move toward fast fashion required and drove far-reaching organizational restructuring and change. This made for a greater integration of knowledge through the value chain, ranging from design to retail. Successful firms also owed their survival to the recognition and usage of internal informal knowledge. At the same time this process was not without tensions and paradoxes, and the findings suggest that many of the solutions followed a process of experimentation. The latter is in sharp contrast to many South African manufacturers, who, with the global articulation of production networks, have lost valuable knowledge on suppliers and their practices. At the same time, both firms have to contend with an increasingly unpredictable international environment.

Research limitations/implications

At a theoretical level, the study points to the need to see informal knowledge not only in individualistic terms but also as a phenomenon that has collective, and indeed, communitarian features. Again, it highlights the challenges of nurturing and optimizing informal knowledge. It shows how contextual features both constrain and enable this process. It further highlights the extent to which the effective utilization of external knowledge, and rapid responses to external developments, may require a fundamental rethinking of organizational structures and hierarchies. This study focuses on a limited number of dimensions of this in a single national context but could be replicated and extended into other contexts.

Practical implications

The study highlights the relationship between survival, success and how knowledge is managed. This involved harnessing the informal knowledge and capabilities of workforce to enhance productivity, in conjunction with improvements in machinery and processes, and a much closer integration of design, supply, production and marketing, underpinned by a more effective usage of IT. Paradoxically, other clothing and textile firms have survived doing the exact opposite – reverting to low value-added cut-and-trim assembly operations. At a policy level, the study highlights how specific features of South African regulation (above all, in terms of job protection), which are often held up as barriers to competiveness, may help sustain the knowledge base of firms.

Social implications

The preservation and creation of jobs in a highly competitive sector was bound up with effective knowledge management. The study also highlighted the mutual interdependence of employers and employees in a context of very high unemployment and how the more effective usage of informal knowledge bound both sides closer.

Originality/value

There is a fairly diverse body of literature on manufacturing in South Africa, and, indeed across the continent; however, much of it has focused on challenges. This study explores relative success stories from a sector that has faced a structural crisis of competitiveness, and as such, has relevance to understanding how firms and industries may cope in highly adverse circumstances.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 October 2021

Nicolas Schippel, Kira Isabel Hower, Susanne Zank, Holger Pfaff and Christian Rietz

The context in which an innovation is implemented is an important and often neglected mediator of change. A prospective payment system (PPS) for psychiatric and psychosomatic…

Abstract

Purpose

The context in which an innovation is implemented is an important and often neglected mediator of change. A prospective payment system (PPS) for psychiatric and psychosomatic facilities with major implications for inpatient psychiatric care in Germany was implemented from 2013 to 2017. This study aims to examine the determinants of implementation of this government policy using the Diffusion of Innovations theory and consider the role of context.

Design/methodology/approach

An exploratory case study was conducted in two wards of a psychiatric hospital in Germany: geriatric psychiatry (GerP) and general psychiatry (GenP). Fifteen interviews were conducted with different occupational groups and analyzed in-depths. Routine hospital data were analyzed for delimiting the two contexts.

Findings

Routine hospital data show a higher day-mix index (1.08 vs. 0.94) in the GerP context and a very different structure regarding PPS groups, indicating a higher patient complexity. Two types of factors influencing implementation were identified: Context-independent factors included social separation between nurses and doctors, poor communication behavior between the groups and a lack of conveying information about the underlying principles of the PPS. Context-dependent factors included compatibility of the new requirements with existing routines and the relative advantage of the PPS, which were both perceived to be lower in the GerP context.

Practical implications

Depending on the patient characteristics in the specific context, compatibility with existing routines should be ensured when implementing. Clear communication of the underlying principles and reduction of organizational and communicative barriers between professional groups are crucial success factors for implementing such innovations.

Originality/value

This study shows how a diffusion process takes place in an organization even after the organization adopts an innovation. The authors could show how contextual differences in terms of patient characteristics result in different determinants of implementation from the views of the employees affected by the innovation.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 36 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 June 2016

Patrick Hennelly and Chee Yew Wong

The focus of this paper is to understand the initial formation of inter-firm relationship with the ultimate aim to form a long-term relationship in offshore-wind sector. The…

Abstract

Purpose

The focus of this paper is to understand the initial formation of inter-firm relationship with the ultimate aim to form a long-term relationship in offshore-wind sector. The research question is “How and why new inter-firm relationships are built in nascent industries with highly uncertain business environments?”

Design/methodology/approach

Longitudinal case studies of three pairs of new inter-firm relationships based on interviews and other archival data are analysed.

Findings

Not all new inter-firm relationships progressed to expansion stage, largely owing to incompatibility and uncertainty. In some cases incompatibility could be rectified by trust and sharing of information. High trust is required to move the relationship from awareness to exploration stage. Investment in R&D is required to move the relationship from exploration to expansion. Innovation complementarity is the key in OSW sector.

Practical implications

Provide insights into how new inter-firm relationships in OSW sector could fail or be built up. High trust at the beginning helps to lower risk and encourages further investment.

Originality/value

Inform inter-firm relationship theories under high market risk and political uncertainty, especially for OSW sector.

Details

International Journal of Energy Sector Management, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6220

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 May 2012

Carolin Plewa, Indrit Troshani, Anthony Francis and Giselle Rampersad

Despite the growing prominence of innovation, limited studies examine the adoption of applications that support innovation processes. The purpose of this study is to investigate…

3085

Abstract

Purpose

Despite the growing prominence of innovation, limited studies examine the adoption of applications that support innovation processes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the adoption of innovation management applications (IMAs).

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on qualitative and quantitative evidence sourced from innovation development and commercialization functions including R&D, marketing, and administration at a university and technology transfer office.

Findings

The paper contributes to literature by isolating determinants that affect the adoption of IMAs and their link to innovation process performance, confirming the importance of perceived usefulness and compatibility of IMAs to user's work styles.

Originality/value

There is paucity of research concerning the adoption of IMAs which present unique challenges due to their idiosyncrasies. This study contributes by proposing an adoption model and validating it. It also links IMA adoption to innovation process performance, thereby filling a gap in extant technology adoption research.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 112 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 August 2020

Desiderio J. García-Almeida and Alicia Bolívar-Cruz

This paper aims to identify the main factors affecting the success of the knowledge replication process in service firms when new units/outlets are created or acquired.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to identify the main factors affecting the success of the knowledge replication process in service firms when new units/outlets are created or acquired.

Design/methodology/approach

The quantitative approach of the study is based on a survey to the first general managers of new hotels integrated in Spanish hotel chains that implement a strategy of knowledge replication.

Findings

Transfer experience in the region; compatibility between the underlying cultural context of the knowledge and the recipients’ culture; recipients’ absorptive capacity; source’s and recipients’ motivation; and lack of adaptation in the transfer routines are key factors that influence several aspects of knowledge replication success in service firms.

Research limitations/implications

From an academic point of view, this work identifies the determinants of success in replication processes. Moreover, two dimensions in knowledge replication success have been identified: a functional dimension and an economic one. Industry and survey limitations must be considered.

Practical implications

Organizations that face a growth process where they want to replicate their corporate knowledge should consider several aspects that seem to be determinants of success in those projects.

Originality/value

Despite the prevalence of replication-based growth strategies in the service sector, there is a lack of research analyses about this phenomenon in the academic literature. The empirical-based research on knowledge transfer and service firms’ growth is scarce and fragmented. This work provides an integrated view of factors affecting knowledge replication success in new organizational units from an empirical quantitative approach.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 24 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 February 2015

Hemlata Gangwar, Hema Date and R Ramaswamy

– The purpose of this paper is to integrate TAM model and TOE framework for cloud computing adoption at organizational level.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to integrate TAM model and TOE framework for cloud computing adoption at organizational level.

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual framework was developed using technological and organizational variables of TOE framework as external variables of TAM model while environmental variables were proposed to have direct impact on cloud computing adoption. A questionnaire was used to collect the data from 280 companies in IT, manufacturing and finance sectors in India. The data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Further, structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model.

Findings

The study identified relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, organizational readiness, top management commitment, and training and education as important variables for affecting cloud computing adoption using perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) as mediating variables. Also, competitive pressure and trading partner support were found directly affecting cloud computing adoption intentions. The model explained 62 percent of cloud computing adoption.

Practical implications

The model can be used as a guideline to ensure a positive outcome of the cloud computing adoption in organizations. It also provides relevant recommendations to achieve conducive implementation environment for cloud computing adoption.

Originality/value

This study integrates two of the information technology adoption models to improve predictive power of resulting model.

Details

Journal of Enterprise Information Management, vol. 28 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0398

Keywords

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