A Complementarity Perspective of Knowledge Resources

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop a complementarity view of the heterogeneous knowledge archetypes. The study first employed a psycho-cognitive perspective to provide theoretical backing for the emergence of knowledge types. Then, a complementarity methodology was employed to synthesize the co-created, heterogeneous knowledge resources into an operation-friendly model. The study shows that, by using the psycho-cognitive lens, the explicit, implicit, and tacit knowledge types are co-created. And that knowledge is actually created as a bundle of heterogeneous but complimentary resources. The complementary view is built off the assumption that a bundle of resources grants a higher value and that a separate use of resource may produce zero value. This paper highlights the capability of the knowledge-as-a-bundle to offer higher values to organizations when deployed jointly rather than the separate use propagated with the dichotomous view of the knowledge resources (types). This paper, therefore, adds, to the existing literature in the knowledge management field, a complementarity lens of knowledge typologies.