Abstract
The emergence of knowledge economy and knowledge management revealed the need for reconsidering the concept of knowledge in a larger framework than that created by philosophers from ancient times. While the epistemology as a theory of knowledge and justification considers knowledge as a justified true belief, experts in knowledge management consider knowledge as a strategic resource. The new economic interpretation of knowledge as a strategic resource and a key contributor to achieving a competitive advantage generated a search of new metaphors to supply the attributes needed in constructing the new framework of understanding and operating with a working concept of knowledge in management. The most widespread knowledge metaphors are based on analogies with stocks, flows, and stock-and-flows. These metaphors induce, beyond some useful attributes, the Newtonian mechanics paradigm which is limited by the properties of linear spaces and reversible processes. The purpose of this paper is to show how we can enrich the theory of knowledge by introducing the concepts of knowledge fields and knowledge dynamics based on metaphorical thinking and the thermodynamics principles. The focus of our research is the energy metaphor which considers energy as a source semantic field. The main outcome of the present research is that knowledge can be considered as a field, which is manifesting in different forms like energy. This thermodynamics framework opens new directions for research in knowledge management, decision-making and leadership.
Highlights
In the strategic management process based on the resource-based view (RBV), the basic philosophy is that competitive advantage is an integrated result of using efficiently strategic resources and dynamic capabilities of the firm [1,2,3]
The aim of this paper is to present a new approach to understanding the complex concepts of knowledge and knowledge dynamics by analogy with thermodynamics, targeting managerial applications
All the knowledge metaphors based on objects, stocks, flows, and stocks-and-flows induce in the semantic field of knowledge the idea of linearity and sometimes that of tangibility
Summary
In the strategic management process based on the resource-based view (RBV), the basic philosophy is that competitive advantage is an integrated result of using efficiently strategic resources and dynamic capabilities of the firm [1,2,3]. Due to its intangible nature and contextual creation, knowledge reflecting the knowing what in organizations became a strategic resource [4,5]. The main advantage of knowledge is its invisible contribution to all decision-making and organizational processes. The most important are knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, and organizational learning [8,9,10]. Understanding knowledge is a mental process mediated by metaphorical thinking [11,12] since knowledge is an abstract concept.
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