Strategic knowledge creation: the case of Hamamatsu Photonics

Abstract

Strategic management can be viewed as a mechanistic or an organic process. In the former, strategic formulation is based on environmental analysis. In the latter, managers are advised to frame strategies on the unique inimitable internal resources. While both heuristics are feasible, the ontological and epistemological foundations of strategic management can be elaborated. A knowledge-based view posits that both indigenous and exogenous factors need to be considered in strategy formulation because companies are in a dialectic environmental interaction. The integral components of the knowledge-based strategy are knowledge vision, driving objectives, dialogues, creative routines, and shared context of interaction (Ba). The space-time specific interaction of these components is illustrated in the example of Hamamatsu Photonics, Ltd., a Japanese company that has recently received attention for its production of the large photoelectron cell. Professor Koshiba was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics for his research aided by the photoelectron cell.