Systematic and practical measurement of organizational knowledge creation

Abstract

PurposeThis study developed a systematic measurement scale for the organizational knowledge creation practices. The authors used five knowledge creation phases – sharing tacit knowledge, creating concepts, justifying concepts, building prototypes, and cross‐leveling knowledge – from Nonaka et al.'s knowledge conversion theory as the theoretical foundation.Design/methodology/approachA total of 914 survey responses collected from 14 for‐profit Korean business organizations representing the country's leading businesses were used to examine the factor structure of those five phases, using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).FindingsResults confirmed that the current version of knowledge creation practice measurement, which has five sub‐dimensions along with ten items, is valid and applicable specifically in the Korean for‐profit business context in terms of the psychometric properties of the measurement and measurement factor structure.Research limitations/implicationsThe generalization issue still remains one of the research limitations because all data sets were collected from Korean business organizations. More sample diversity needs to be considered for further research in terms of cross‐cultural comparison research, which could strengthen the validity of the current developed measurement.Practical implicationsFrom the practical standpoint, organizations can utilize this measurement to diagnose their status of knowledge creation, at team and organization levels.Originality/valueThis measurement could promote more dynamic research on areas of knowledge creation in terms of valid and economic size of measurement. From the practical standpoint, organizations can utilize this measurement to diagnose their status of knowledge creation at team and organization levels.