Sharing Knowledge Across Generations and Its Impact on Innovation

Paul J Woodfield,Kenneth Husted

doi:10.26813/001c.31022

Abstract

The next generation (NG) is vital to securing a thriving wine industry. We argue that knowledge sharing affects innovation in family winegrowing businesses, and that the NG brings new knowledge to the family business more likely to lead to radical new innovation. This is contrary to the typical view that the senior generation (SG) is the source of all the valuable knowledge, which must be passed on to the NG. As a traditional industry with a large share of family businesses, winegrowing has a heritage of innovation. Individuals in the family business and their ability to innovate over generations is essential for adaption, competitiveness, and ultimately survival. Using Nonaka and Takeuchi’s SECI (socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization) model as a lens, we explore the knowledge creation and innovation outcomes of two-way or “bidirectional” knowledge sharing. Through this lens, we seek to understand how knowledge is shared and utilized within an intergenerational family winegrowing business. We then go further by exploring the impact each generation has on innovation, highlighting the NG as a primary source of new knowledge. We conclude with guidelines for managers in family businesses who aspire to improve innovation outcomes by enabling bidirectional knowledge sharing.

Highlights

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. (George Orwell)The knowledge generation (NG) members bring to the family business is often overlooked
Following the SECI model (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995), there are significant opportunities for families to innovate by converting knowledge by a) retaining their tacit knowledge through socialization via shared experiences, b) gaining new knowledge through externalization, c) combining explicit knowledge gained by the next generation (NG), and d) the NG receiving explicit knowledge that can be applied within the family business
By using the SECI model, this paper demonstrates that the senior generation (SG)’s sharing of tacit knowledge results in innovation either when it changes from one tacit form to another or when it is transformed to explicit knowledge

Summary

Introduction

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. (George Orwell)The knowledge generation (NG) members bring to the family business is often overlooked. A recent review shows the predominant focus of wine business research journals tends to be marketing, consumer behavior, or tourism (Nave et al, 2021; Weatherbee et al, 2019), while disciplines including entrepreneurship, innovation management, and knowledge management are underrepresented. This gap is further highlighted by recent research on the role of knowledge between generations, which argues that knowledge sharing is bidirectional in family businesses, and can lead to innovative outcomes and change (Woodfield et al, 2017)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion