Overcoming Stickiness: How the Timing of Knowledge Transfer Methods Affects Transfer Difficulty

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Szulanski, Gabriel; Ringov, Dimo; Jensen, Robert J.
• 署名单位: INSEAD Business School; Universitat Ramon Llull; Escuela Superior de Administracion y Direccion de Empresas (ESADE); Brigham Young University
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2016.1049
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 304-322
• 关键词: knowledge transfer; knowledge transfer methods; knowledge transfer process; tacit knowledge; stickiness; Organizational learning

摘要

Knowledge transfer can be facilitated through the judicious timing of transfer methods. Yet, extant research has neglected the impact of the timing of transfer methods. Departing from this observation, we theorize the existence of two knowledge transfer modes-front-loading and back-loading-based on whether the affordance for tacit knowledge exchange provided by the transfer methods used is higher during the initiation or during the implementation phase of a transfer. We suggest that the impact of front-loading and back-loading on transfer difficulty is contingent on the causal ambiguity of the knowledge being transferred and on the arduousness of the relationship between the source and the recipient of knowledge. We operationalize front-loading and back-loading and test our propositions using primary data on 2,711 instances of method use in 116 transfers of 37 organizational practices in 8 companies. We hypothesize and find empirical support for the claim that front-loading affordance for tacit knowledge exchange reduces transfer difficulty when the causal ambiguity of the knowledge to be transferred is high, whereas it increases difficulty when the relationship between the source and recipient of knowledge is arduous.