Knowledge Integration in Government–Industry Project Network

Abstract

Organizations in project networks often integrate specialized knowledge that resides within participants in the network to undertake collaborative ventures. Thus, knowledge integration forms an important aspect of any knowledge management process. Knowledge integration in past studies has been conceptualized as laddering up from knowledge identification to knowledge acquisition to knowledge utilization. However, this study reveals that on the basis of three knowledge typologies—object‐based knowledge, professional knowledge, and coordinating knowledge—the process of knowledge integration progresses from knowledge identification to knowledge coordination to knowledge utilization. This study was carried out as an embedded case study of a large project network (TAXNET) comprising nine actors (i.e. firms). It was designed as a longitudinal study to be conducted in two phases, data being collected through in‐depth interviews, non‐obtrusive observations, and a diary. Other sources of information were minutes of meetings, e‐mails, and company records. The contribution of this study lies in the fact that knowledge integration within project networks has not been fully explored in past studies. Hence, the revelation that actors in a project network do not need to acquire knowledge that is not available in‐house but rather collaborate and coordinate with each other to draw on specialized knowledge that resides within other actors of the project network is unique. An important implication would therefore be that while establishing project networks, managers should be more cognizant that there are different types of knowledge and that the success of collaborative ventures would be determined by how knowledge is identified, coordinated, or used. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.