Knowledge Leakage Research Articles

Boundary buffering: limiting interference and information leakage in design teams

PurposeTwo challenges faced by automotive component design projects within contracted design agencies are (1) specification changes requested by the manufacturers and (2) product information or core technology knowledge leakage to external actors. We examine the effects of targeted boundary activities that address these challenges under the contingencies of environmental uncertainty and project complexity.Design/methodology/approachBased on Boundary management theory, a bidirectional model of boundary buffering was conceptualized in the context of design agency teams developing automotive components. A survey is derived from the proposed model. Regression analysis is performed using empirical data from 234 auto component design projects in Chinese design agencies.FindingsBoundary buffering activities that strengthen outside-in boundaries and inside-out boundaries directly improve the final design quality. Further, the magnitude of effect for outside-in buffering on design quality is enhanced under environmental uncertainty, while the impact of inside-out buffering on design quality is enhanced under project complexity.Research limitations/implicationsBoundary activities should consider differences in boundary targets, directional flow of information, and context of scope.Practical implicationsAutomotive component design agents should attend to both outside-in and inside-out boundary buffering, especially under conditions of environmental uncertainty or project complexity.Originality/valueThe proposed bidirectional view on boundary buffering adds perspective to team boundary management theory. Specific contingencies include common risk elements of project complexity and environmental uncertainty not typically associated with the need for buffering activities.

Shared digital identity and rich knowledge ties in global 3D printing—A drizzle in the clouds?

AbstractResearch SummaryModern audio‐visual digital technology enables the immediate exchange of explicit, but also of tacit knowledge worldwide. Still, when not embedded in strong ties, the international exchange of tacit and proprietary knowledge becomes risky. Our flexible pattern matching qualitative research approach develops new theory and finds that in the nascent 3D printing industry firms exchange explicit and tacit knowledge globally, even in weak ties. The exchanges seem to be grounded in identification processes with digital technology forming a shared digital identity. We conceptualize the shared digital identity as the collective self‐concept(s) of an in‐group towards the creation, emergence, application, and development of digital technology built on a sense of community, enthusiasm, being part of something special as well as common values and norms.Managerial SummaryFirms in the nascent digital industry of 3D printing share knowledge worldwide. Potentials of transferring tacit and proprietary knowledge by modern audio‐visual digital technologies increase constantly. However, so do the dangers of knowledge leakage and competitive risks. A resolution of this tension comes from a new phenomenon, the shared digital identity. A shared digital identity within and among firms enables and informally guards the sharing of tacit and proprietary knowledge via digital technologies. We conceptualize the shared digital identity by a sense of community, enthusiasm, being part of something special as well as common values and norms. The knowledge exchanges assisted by digital technology occur under the aegis of the shared digital identity and accelerate the emergence of digital technologies and so facilitate global business.

A knowledge governance framework for open innovation projects

Markets tend to develop always faster with ever-growing requirements on products and services. This forces enterprises to cooperate with partners like suppliers, customers, or even competitors across organisational borders to cope with these challenges. Such a collaboration leads to knowledge flows between all partners. Being too open and sharing too much information can cause knowledge leakage. The central aim of this research is to provide a framework on how to integrate knowledge governance mechanisms in open innovation projects to ensure eligibility in practice. Insights from the field have been integrated into the framework by interviewing ten experts who have practical experiences on open innovation projects. The interviews have been conducted in 2019 and analysed later on. Based on scientific literature and insights from the field, a knowledge governance framework to guide through open innovation projects has been developed.

The Impact of the Flexibility of Quality Contracts on the Quality Performance of Organizations: Moderating Effect Based on Quality Knowledge Distance

Measuring the quality of a company’s operations is the key to judging its existence. Based on the flexibility of the quality contract of the enterprise, this study studies its mechanism that affects the quality performance of the organization. This study starts from the flexibility of quality contract, and studies its impact path on organizational quality performance. It takes quality contract flexibility as independent variable, organizational quality performance as dependent variable, paradox cognition and control accidental quality knowledge leakage as intermediate variable and quality knowledge distance as Moderator. The empirical results show that the flexibility of the quality contract will affect the quality performance of the organization, the paradox cognition and the control of accidental knowledge leakage play a positive intermediary role, and the quality knowledge distance plays a moderating role. That is to say, when signing a flexible contract, an enterprise can improve its quality performance by improving the awareness of paradox and strengthening the control of accidental knowledge leakage.

An extended SECI model to incorporate inter-organisational knowledge flows and open innovation

Nonaka's SECI model provides a clear demonstration of the continual cycle of knowledge creation and conversion within an organisation. However, the knowledge flows and exchanges across the organisational boundary have not been systematically taken into account. In order to address this limitation, this paper develops a revised knowledge creation model that includes such extensions as the acquisition of explicit knowledge through purchasing or collaborative arrangements (knowledge inflows); acquisition of tacit knowledge through interaction between the organisation and its stakeholders and learning-by-hiring (knowledge inflows); deliberate knowledge leakages through selling, licensing-out or spinning-off unused technologies and by-products (knowledge outflows); and unintended knowledge spillovers due to the mobility of skilled workers (knowledge outflows). This extended knowledge creation and conversion model aims to provide today's managers with a clearer picture of opportunities for knowledge creation and sharing within and across organisations based on inter-organisational knowledge flows and open innovation principles.

Engaging Customer Cocreation in New Product Development Through Foreign Subsidiaries: Influences of Multinational Corporations’ Global Integration and Local Adaptation Mechanisms

Efforts to engage customers in cocreating new products have garnered much research attention from studies documenting customer cocreation’s (CC’s) positive impact on firm innovation and performance. Less research, however, has counterbalanced the bright side with the potential dark side of CC, especially as a strategy for multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in foreign markets. This study examines how MNC subsidiaries’ CC affects new product innovativeness and knowledge leakage to competitors. Adopting a broader agency perspective to recognize that subsidiaries often do not perform up to headquarters’ expectations due to both self-serving opportunism and honest incompetence, this study explores how CC effects are contingent on MNCs’ global management mechanisms. Using a dyadic managerial survey of 238 MNC subsidiaries, the authors find that MNCs can control knowledge leakage by implementing proper global integration and local adaptation mechanisms. However, CC may not improve new product innovativeness, except when the subsidiary has low local research-and-development staff influence. This study contributes to the CC literature by showing its benefits, challenges, and boundary conditions as a growing MNC innovation strategy.

Managing Knowledge Sharing-Protecting Tensions in Coupled Innovation Projects among Several Competitors

While collaborating with several competitors on coupled innovation projects requires smooth knowledge sharing to ensure the project’s success, protecting knowledge is also essential due to the prevailing risks of coalition formation, opportunism, and knowledge leakage. Intense tensions between knowledge sharing and protection may arise and must be managed to avoid project failure. This article explores the formal and informal mechanisms used to manage these tensions. The case studied (Galileo) reveals the limited role of informal mechanisms to manage such tensions and shows how a centralized project structure encouraged the formal sharing of knowledge by protecting firms from unwanted knowledge transfers between competitors.

Assessment of biological safety: A social and legal aspect

The article is dealed with problems and prospects of experiments with biological objects directed on change of a natural hereditary basis, which include risks of creation of new unnatural living organisms that can represent biological danger to the humans and environment. We noted that the possibility of uncontrolled creation of highly pathogenic strains of microorganisms, which do not exist in nature, for humans or animals, poses a great threat. We considered that such new pathogenic strains should be dangerous to the environment and will inevitably endanger human and animal life on the planet. There are several quite convincing examples in the world illustrated the danger of invading the genetic program of a living organism, while ignoring the laws of evolution and genetics, focusing only on short-term financial benefits to individuals, companies or financial groups. We established that a key element in preventing the spread of infection from laboratories or other artificial places of consolidation is the strict implementation of standard microbiological requirements. The development of effective measures to prevent and eliminate the consequences of biological attacks, taking into account their various possible scenarios, should be based on biomedical, social, economic and legal criteria. We suggested we need to consider the cost-benefit analysis and other indices characterizing the state of ecology, economy, health, and social relations when implement the measures on biological safety. In Ukraine today there is a priority to develop a legislative position in the field of counteraction to bioterrorism. This issue concerns not only the development and adoption of special laws, but also the implementation of the policy of "efficiency" against biological threats by the relevant state authorities. This also includes the establishment of full state control over enterprises and institutions related to biological agents and toxins, and the improvement of the system of "state-scientist" to control the leakage of professional knowledge outside the country.

Location and survival of MNEs' subsidiaries: Agglomeration and heterogeneity of firms

AbstractResearch summaryOur study provides a quasi–replication of Shaver and Flyer (2000), which was among the first studies that challenged the positive role of agglomeration in determining companies' location choice and performances, thus changing the way management scholars view companies' attitude towards agglomeration forces. We employ the same research design, specification and tests, and a different population, to discuss the generalizability of the original study. Building on the framework of Shaver and Flyer (2000), our findings offer intriguing new empirical evidence highlighting the importance of the differential between entering foreign firms and host country firms as a crucial condition in understanding agglomeration forces and adverse selection mechanisms.Managerial summaryOur exercise confirms that agglomeration forces act differently on stronger versus weaker multinational enterprises (MNEs). However, we find that stronger MNEs tend to avoid location in highly specialized areas when they are afraid of knowledge leakages towards host country–based rivals that have enough absorptive capacity to benefit and improve their competitive advantages. Managerial implications are quite relevant. Indeed, when MNEs avoid co–location in highly specialized areas, they also limit their own access to local knowledge and other agglomeration economies, such as supply networks and qualified workforce. Thus, MNEs managers need to design and implement devices that, on the one hand prevent local leakages of their knowledge and, on the other, do not hinder their access to local unique knowledge and resources.

Managing knowledge leakage during knowledge sharing in software development organisations

Background: Knowledge refers to the skills and facts that individuals acquire while performing some tasks. Knowledge leakage is the loss of knowledge, resulting in loss of the organisation’s position in the marketplace. Internal and external knowledge leakage in software development organisations lowers the organisations’ competitive advantage. Knowledge sharing is a process of innovation and value creation that leads to competitive advantage. Innovation is a result of an effective knowledge sharing process. Knowledge can be shared internally and externally; however, not all knowledge can be shared externally because of some confidentiality issues. Some organisations do not promote knowledge sharing to avoid knowledge leakage. Objectives: The main objective of this study was to investigate how knowledge sharing leads to knowledge leakages in software development organisations. Method: A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from IT professionals to explore knowledge sharing and knowledge leakages. A response rate of 53.6% was received. Results: The results indicated that people always move from one organisation to another, resulting in an increased knowledge leakage. People will always share whatever they have learnt in the new organisation. Five key critical findings that cause staff turnover are management and citizenship, industrial psychology, industrial relations, employee morale and organisational culture. Conclusions: Because knowledge resides in the brains of individuals, it is recommended that organisations should motivate their staff not to leave. Organisations need to implement global skills resource management, mentoring programmes and documentation of lessons learnt to retain knowledge. Good management strategies should be applied to create a good working environment and organisational culture to retain employees.

A framework for avoiding knowledge leakage: evidence from engineering to order firms

ABSTRACTBy adopting multiple case-studies, this paper attempts to investigate, in the engineering to order companies’ context, knowledge leakage problems. It proposes a framework for managing knowledge leakage that represents the first attempt to depict together different knowledge threats, knowledge identification methods, and defensive mechanisms. Results confirm, in the context investigated, the existence of the knowledge threats and the adoption of knowledge identification and defensive mechanisms identified in the literature, even if with some exception, and recognize three “new for the literature” methods. Findings neglect the significance of knowledge management systems, thus raising doubts about their usefulness in knowledge leakage situations. Our study is valuable not only for scholars interested in the topic but also for firms’ managers, as it could help them in understanding, detecting and preventing knowledge leakage situations.

Knowledge leakage, an Achilles’ heel of knowledge sharing

In today’s knowledge-based economy, organizations are progressively accumulating the knowledge, which they required for innovation, from outside their boundaries. Having accepted the important role of knowledge sharing in innovation performance, it is disappointing to note that the potential harmful impacts of accidental and intentional knowledge leakage on this relationship are still neglected or undeveloped in the literature. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of knowledge sharing and entrepreneurial orientation on organization’s innovation performance, considering intentional and accidental leakage of knowledge. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from 151 manufacturing SMEs operating in Malaysia, listed in Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) directory of 2017. Purposive sampling technique was used in this study and data were analyzed using partial least squares technique. The findings of this study show that there is a positive and significant relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge sharing (R2 = 0.140). Moreover, knowledge sharing and entrepreneurial orientation have a positive and significant effect on innovation performance (R2 = 0.500). In addition, the results show that accidental knowledge leakage negatively moderates the relationship between knowledge sharing and innovation performance. However, accidental knowledge leakage has no moderating effect in the same relationship. This research is important due to the increasing complexity and the networked nature of innovation and high risk of knowledge leakage in this environment. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the potentially positive and negative issues related to entrepreneurial orientation, knowledge sharing, innovation performance, and knowledge leakage, which have thus far remained empirically under-researched.

Coopetition and innovation. Lessons from worker cooperatives in the Spanish machine tool industry

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate how the implementation of the inter-cooperation principle among Spanish machine-tool cooperatives helps them to coopete–collaborate with competitors, in their innovation and internationalization processes and achieve collaborative advantages.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a multi-case approach based on interviews with 15 CEOs and research and development (R&D) managers, representing 14 Spanish machine tool firms and institutions. Eight of these organizations are worker-cooperatives.FindingsWorker-cooperatives achieve advantages on innovation and internationalization via inter-cooperation (shared R&D units, joint sales offices, joint after-sale services, knowledge exchange and relocation of key R&D technicians and managers). Several mutual bonds and ties among cooperatives help to overcome the risk of opportunistic behaviour and knowledge leakage associated to coopetition. The obtained results give some clues explaining to what extent and under which conditions coopetitive strategies of cooperatives are transferable to other types of ownership arrangements across sectors.Practical implicationsFirms seeking cooperation with competitors in their R&D and internationalization processes can learn from the coopetitive arrangements analyzed in the paper.Social implicationsFindings can be valuable for sectoral associations and public bodies trying to promote coopetition and alliances between competitors as a means to benefit from collaborative advantages.Originality/valueFocussing on an “ideal type” of co-operation–cooperative organizations – and having access to primary sources, the paper shows to what extent (and how) strong coopetitive structures and processes foster innovation and internationalization.

The role of regulatory focus and trustworthiness in knowledge transfer and leakage in alliances

This study investigates the overlooked phenomenon of the role of heterogeneous individuals in understanding knowledge transfer between partners in strategic alliances. We advance the current understanding about the role of boundary spanners in knowledge transfer between partner firms by proposing that the regulatory focus of boundary spanners is a key antecedent of promoting tacit knowledge transfer and preventing knowledge leakage in alliances. Furthermore, we investigate how the perception of partner trustworthiness moderates the role of regulatory focus. Our findings, based on a survey of 142 firms indicate that boundary spanners’ promotion focus and perceived partner trustworthiness have direct positive effects on tacit knowledge transfer. The interaction of prevention focus and trustworthiness has a positive effect on transfer of tacit knowledge and a negative effect on knowledge leakage.

Corporate social responsibility as a defense against knowledge spillovers: Evidence from the inevitable disclosure doctrine

Research SummaryWe examine whether companies respond to the threat of knowledge leakage by strategically increasing their engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR). To obtain exogenous variation in the threat of knowledge leakage, we exploit a natural experiment provided by the rejection of the inevitable disclosure doctrine (IDD) by several U.S. states. Using a difference‐in‐differences methodology we find that, following the rejection of the IDD, companies significantly increase their CSR. Our proposed rationale is that CSR helps mitigate knowledge leakage by (i) reducing employees' propensity to join a rival firm, and (ii) reducing employees' propensity to disclose the firm's valuable knowledge even if they join a rival firm. Evidence from a laboratory experiment, an online experiment, and a survey of knowledge workers is supportive of these arguments.Managerial SummaryWe study the role of CSR in companies' response to the threat of knowledge leakage—a major managerial challenge that has important implications for firms' innovation and competitiveness. We use three different research designs (an analysis of companies' CSR policies in response to an increased threat of knowledge leakage; a survey of knowledge workers; and an experiment conducted both online and in a laboratory setting). The results show that CSR is perceived to mitigate the threat of knowledge leakage. In particular, (i) CSR reduces knowledge workers' propensity to join rival firms (i.e., they are less likely to “walk”) and, even if they do, (ii) CSR reduces their propensity to disclose the firm's valuable knowledge to their new employer (i.e., they are less likely to “talk”).

Not every coopetitor is the same: The impact of technological, market and geographical overlap with coopetitors on firms’ breakthrough inventions

Whereas most coopetition research tends to conceptualize coopetitors as a homogeneous group, we explicitly consider the heterogeneity of coopetitors. In particular, we examine the impact of a focal firm's technological, market, and geographical overlap with coopetitors on its ability to generate breakthrough inventions. We expect that these different dimensions of overlap and their interactions shape knowledge acquisition opportunities and knowledge leakage risks in coopetition, which in-turn influences the ability of the focal firm to generate breakthrough inventions. To examine our theoretical arguments, we construct a unique data set from 323 firms in the global solar photovoltaic industry between 1995 and 2015. Our results indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between a focal firm's technological overlap with its portfolio of coopetitors and its breakthrough inventions. In addition, we find that its market and geographical overlap with the portfolio of coopetitors moderate this curvilinear relationship. However, when both market overlap and geographical overlap are simultaneously considered, the moderation effect of geographical overlap becomes insignificant. Jointly, these findings enrich the coopetition literature, pointing to the relevance and importance of considering the interactions between technological, market and geographic heterogeneity of coopetitors.

Knowledge Sharing Willingness and Leakage Risk: An Evolutional Game Model

Prior research of knowledge sharing between firms mainly focuses on enabling factors, such as benefits resulting from knowledge sharing, leading to an overlook at barriers. Guided by transaction cost economics and social exchange theory, our study constructed an evolutional game model to analyse the dynamic evolution process of the firm’s knowledge sharing behaviour in a setting of supply chain networks. Using a simulation in our game model, we firstly reveal how a long-term strategy for supply chain partners towards knowledge sharing is determined through reaching an equilibrium between enabling factors (revenue gained in various forms) and impeding factors (knowledge leakage) in a dynamic process. Secondly, our analysis demonstrates that the competition or rivalry side of the “co-opetition” relationship acts as the major barrier for knowledge sharing due to the sharer’s concern of knowledge leakage. Thirdly, our model has identified knowledge relevancy as the inherent property of knowledge and the firm’ ability of knowledge inference as two important factors influencing knowledge leakage.

Technology Transfer and Risks of Knowledge Leakages Through Training Activities: An Assessment in Sovereign Industries

This paper assesses risks of knowledge leakage associated with training in technology transfers. Today states want to master sovereign technologies. As a consequence, exporting firms have adapted their offers to respond to customers’ requests and provide training in technology transfer contracts. We have recorded the perception of trainers regarding risks of knowledge leakage associated with training activities. Due to different interpretations of technology transfers and related risks, trainers’ assessment of knowledge leakages is not homogeneous in the training process. A typology of trainers and their typical behaviors in professional situations is proposed and leads to recommendations to mitigate knowledge leakages.

Burt- Or Coleman-Type Rents, Or a Bit of Both? Knowledge Management Strategies in Suppliers’ Networks

Nodal Enterprises (NEs) (Dyer & Nobeoka, 2000) create value by exploiting their position at the center of networks of supplier firms. In managing these networks of organizations, however, NEs face a dilemma: how much knowledge must be shared with partners in the value-chain? In this paper, we propose that knowledge sharing must be managed dynamically. 
 
 Building on selected applications of social network theory to clusters’ analysis (Kogut, 2000), we assume that NEs manage a combination of two types of rents when they share knowledge among their networked firms: “Coleman-type” and “Burt-type” rents. How the combination between the two dynamically unfolds is an unexplored issue. Using a computer simulation model, we explore robustness of alternative strategies of knowledge sharing among networked firms. Learning from our simulation experiments, we suggest a desired inter-temporal pattern of knowledge sharing and we show how the steady-state of knowledge-sharing depends counterintuitively on the speed at which knowledge leaks among the firms that are connected in the network.

Synergizing independent and cooperative R&D activities: the effects of organisational slack and absorptive capacity

ABSTRACTFirms undertaking independent and cooperative research and development (R&D) activities simultaneously often have difficulties to realise their synergistic effects. This study contends that such difficulties are caused by tensions between two types of R&D activities in terms of resource competition and knowledge leakage. Moreover, organisational slack and absorptive capacity may affect these tensions and thereby play important role in synergizing independent and cooperative R&D activities. Based on a survey data of 286 firms, this study finds that such two types of R&D activities jointly have a negative impact on firm performance. Furthermore, organisational slack aids in synergizing them, while absorptive capacity has an adverse impact. These findings enrich our knowledge on the interrelation of independent and cooperative R&D activities and shed light on how firms can synergize them.