Complex Knowledge Transfer Research Articles

Academic Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial Advisors and Their Advisees’ Outcomes

The transfer of complex knowledge and skills is difficult, often requiring intensive interaction and extensive periods of coworking between a mentor and mentee, which is particularly true in apprenticeship-like settings and on-the-job training. This paper studies a context that quintessentially describes this type of learning: the academic laboratory. I focus on ways a change in the attention of a principal investigator, moving to entrepreneurship, may influence knowledge transmission and skill development by examining the relationship of this change with their PhD students’ scientific productivity and careers. To do so, I rely on novel restricted-access data encompassing faculty and PhD students in computer sciences, engineering, and the life sciences who were active at an elite U.S. research university from 2001 to 2017. The results suggest a substantial negative association between a professor’s entrepreneurial activity and the short- and long-run publication output of the PhD students they train. Furthermore, I detect a decrease in students’ likelihood of becoming professors themselves but an increase in their likelihood of working for consulting firms on graduation. Finally, I provide evidence suggesting that changes in trainee development are the most feasible drivers of the results rather than changes in trainee research orientation, selection, or life cycle effects. Funding: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [NSF SciSIP Dissertation Improvement Grant 1933387]. The author thanks the Harvard Business School Division of Research and Faculty Development for further financial support. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1633 .

Initial development of a self-assessment approach for coproduction value creation by an international community of practice.

Coproduction offers a new way of conceptualizing healthcare as a service that is co-created by people (health professionals and people seeking health services) rather than a product that is generated by providers or health systems and delivered to patients. This offers new possibilities for those introducing and testing changes, and it enables additional ways of creating value. Fjeldstad and colleagues describe the architecture of several kinds of value creating systems: (i) Chain; (ii) Shop; (iii) Network and (iv) Access. An international Value Creating Business Model Community of practice (VCBM CoP) was formed by the International Coproduction of Health Network and explored these types of systems and developed a self-assessment guide for health systems to use to assess value. An international community of practice comprising leaders, clinicians, patients and finance specialists representing 12 health systems from four countries (USA, UK, Israel and Sweden) met monthly for 1year and used a semi-structured process to iteratively refine and adapt Fjeldstad's model for use in healthcare and develop a draft self-assessment guide. The process concluded with initial focus group user experience sessions with six health systems. The community of practice successfully completed a 1-year journey of discovery, development and learning, resulting in two products: (1) a full-version self-assessment guide (detailed) and (2) an abbreviated 'short-form' of the guide. Initial focus-group results suggest that there is initial perceived feasibility, acceptability and utility of the guides and that further development and research is reasonable to pursue. Results suggest significant variation and context specificity in the use of the guide, simple and complex knowledge transfer applications in use, and the need for the development of simple and technology supported versions for use in the future. The VCBM CoP has successfully completed a 1-year collaborative learning cycle, resulting in the development of a self-assessment guide that is now ready for additional investigation using formal research methods. The CO-VALUE study has been designed to build on the work of the CoP and includes qualitative and quantitative assessment phases and a concept mapping study.

The Transfer of Knowledge in a Trustworthy Doctor-Patient Interaction: A Philosophical Problem

"The effectiveness of medical evidence is largely dependent on the ability to communicate that evidence to the science-users, mostly patients. Like in many fields of science, also in medicine trust is one of the most important components of doctor-patient interaction. Cultivation of patient trust is, in turn, primarily a linguistic activity, subject to linguistic norms and conventions. Doctor-patient interaction has been at the core of a growing discussion during the past few years, especially in the context of innovations in evidence-based methods and related to the applicability of clinical guidelines derived from those methods. In Italy, this debate resulted in a recent law (n.219/2017), which declares that “the care and trusting relationship between doctor and patient which is based on the informed consent is promoted and enhanced” (art.1) and that “the time of the communication between doctor and patient is a time of care” (art.8). This new kind of perspective on communication between physicians and patients has led to several questions, above all (i) what is the best definition of trust? and (ii) how achieve a trusting relationship? According to a strictly philosophical point of view, it implies how to successfully communicate imperfect evidence and risk to patients who are in a position of epistemic asymmetry with respect to the doctors; it is problematic because it involves a transfer of complex knowledge of risks and uncertainties from experts to laypeople. The paper investigates the difficulties in communicating medical evidence associated with risk and uncertainties of diagnosis and treatment. "

The effects of university–industry collaboration in preclinical research on pharmaceutical firms’ R&D performance: Absorptive capacity’s role

AbstractPharmaceutical firms frequently engage in preclinical research collaboration with universities. Many of these collaborative preclinical research projects are conducted by firms’ subsidiaries. In this setting, the challenge of transferring knowledge from university–industry collaborations (UICs) to internal research and development (R&D) increases, since knowledge has to be transferred twice: to the subsidiary and to the parent. To benefit from tacit and complex knowledge obtained through collaboration with academic partners, firms need to have a high absorptive capacity. However, existing research on absorptive capacity's effect on the efficacy of UIC has provided mixed results, and the knowledge transfer mechanisms remain unclear, particularly in the case of basic (or preclinical) research and of the complex knowledge transfer process from subsidiaries’ collaborative efforts. Building on the knowledge‐based view and following a multidimensional perspective of absorptive capacity, this study investigates the role a firm's capabilities play in successful university knowledge integration in a firm's internal R&D. Therefore, this paper analyzes both parent firms’ UICs and their subsidiaries’ UICs in basic (preclinical) research. The results of our longitudinal analysis of a unique panel data set of 56 global pharmaceutical firms indicate that firms do successfully exploit valuable knowledge from preclinical research UIC in internal R&D, measured by the number of performed clinical trials. This holds true for the UIC involving the parent firm and its subsidiaries. As transformative learning dimensions of absorptive capacity, high diversity in therapeutic activity and high R&D intensity levels strengthen the positive relationship between parents’ UIC and R&D performance. A high exploration intensity level of the firm and high diversity in therapeutic activity help to transfer the knowledge from subsidiaries’ preclinical research UIC to parents’ innovation projects.

The bandwidth problem in telecoupled systems governance: Certifying sustainable winemaking in Australia and Chile

Telecoupled systems connect consumption and other choices in one part of the world with land-use and land-cover change in another. While such connections are increasingly well documented, research on governing telecoupled systems is in its infancy. Drawing on recent discussions in sociology, we argue that models for governing telecoupled systems must consider two types of information flows. Low-bandwidth flows allow for limited information transfer but can take place over greater distances. High-bandwidth flows, by contrast, allow for more complex knowledge transfer but tend to be geographically localized due to the costs of maintaining robust connections. Using a mixed-methods case study of national sustainability certification in the wine sector in Australia and Chile, we argue that Chile's counterintuitive success in diffusing its national sustainability certification relates to its geography, which facilitated high-bandwidth connections. We conclude that telecoupling governance measures, such as jurisdictional commodity certification, need to consider the unique requirements and costs of high-bandwidth connections in allocating institutional investments.

The challenges of radical innovation in Iran: Knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity highlights — Evidence from a joint venture in the construction sector

We investigate the collaboration between an Iranian and a French company in a joint venture aimed at developing radical innovation in the construction sector. We identify the challenges involved, the barriers to technological change, and the difficulties of transferring knowledge related to absorptive capacity.We conduct an in depth case study of a joint venture created by Freyssinet and Azaran to build a new roof to the Mashhad stadium. We conducted 41 interviews over a 19month period.Our findings indicate that radical innovation is characterized by safety, quality, and planning challenges which engender delays, non-conformity to specifications, and additional costs. Freyssinet was unsuccessful in transferring explicit and tacit knowledge because Azaran suffered from poor organizational absorptive capacity. Its high absorptive capacity allowed Freyssinet to adapt its operations to Azaran's tacit knowledge routines.Our research is meaningful to the construction sector, an economically and socially significant sector in Iran that faces serious issues. Our study has practical implications for Iranian firms and for foreign firms operating in Iran. We contribute to strengthen the understanding of Iranian technology development by focusing on radical innovation standards, joint venture specific learning dyads, and complex knowledge transfer.

Knowledge Complexity and the Performance of Inter-Unit Knowledge Transfer Structures

Intra-firm transfer of complex knowledge is critical to firm growth. However, the complexity of knowledge renders this process difficult. The appropriate design of inter-unit structures may help facilitate the transfer of complex knowledge between units. Using an agent-based simulation, we study the knowledge transfer performance of archetypical inter-unit structures at different levels of knowledge complexity by modeling how these structures coordinate the transfer of interdependent knowledge elements and manage information overload. We show that the knowledge transfer performance of decentralized inter-unit structures is less negatively impacted by knowledge complexity than that of centralized inter-unit structures such as boundary spanners. Further, we find that among decentralized structures, the collective bridge structure generates optimal performance at high levels of complexity.

Examining the factors influencing cross-project knowledge transfer: An empirical study of IT services firms in China

Despite the significance of the knowledge initiatives at project level, our understanding of knowledge transfer between projects and of its influencing factors remains limited. Drawing on knowledge transfer and project management literature, we develop a theoretical model positing that cross-project knowledge transfer is influenced by project teams' transfer capabilities, project teams' relationship, project task context and project team context. We adopt mixed methods and empirically test the model in the context of Chinese IT services firms. Our data analysis reveals that cross-project knowledge transfer is affected differently by the capabilities of and governance efforts by the source and recipient teams. Our study concludes that project-based organizations and project managers will be able to better manage the complexity of cross-project knowledge transfer if they simultaneously consider the multiple dimensions of factors underlying the complex knowledge transfer process and be mindful of the source and recipient of knowledge in the project setting.

Knowledge Transfer on Complex Social Interventions in Public Health: A Scoping Study

ObjectivesScientific knowledge can help develop interventions that improve public health. The objectives of this review are (1) to describe the status of research on knowledge transfer strategies in the field of complex social interventions in public health and (2) to identify priorities for future research in this field.MethodA scoping study is an exploratory study. After searching databases of bibliographic references and specialized periodicals, we summarized the relevant studies using a predetermined assessment framework. In-depth analysis focused on the following items: types of knowledge transfer strategies, fields of public health, types of publics, types of utilization, and types of research specifications.ResultsFrom the 1,374 references identified, we selected 26 studies. The strategies targeted mostly administrators of organizations and practitioners. The articles generally dealt with instrumental utilization and most often used qualitative methods. In general, the bias risk for the studies is high.ConclusionResearchers need to consider the methodological challenges in this field of research in order to improve assessment of more complex knowledge transfer strategies (when they exist), not just diffusion/dissemination strategies and conceptual and persuasive utilization.

Emerging coordination and knowledge transfer process during disease outbreak

When multiple agencies respond to a disease outbreak (i.e., H1N1 and SARS), the coordination of actions is complex and evolves over time. There has not been any systematic empirical study of the dynamics of emerging coordination behaviour and knowledge transfer process during a disease outbreak. In this paper, we first introduce our approach for the analysis of multi-agency intervention during a disease outbreak using the study of social networks. Using social networks and its analytic framework, we explore questions such as: How does the multi-agency coordination emerge for supporting the complex knowledge transfer process during different phases of disease outbreak? How effective are these formal and informal coordination mechanisms in achieving a robust outcome in response coordination through effective knowledge transfer process during the outbreak? What are the key lessons learned by studying the emerging coordination and knowledge transfer process during past disease outbreak in improving the multi-agency preparedness for dealing with future outbreaks? The discussion is supported by a qualitative study of the implementation of the results of the analysis. We reveal that profound understanding of social network behaviour and emerging coordination concepts are pivotal to the optimisation of knowledge transfer process which is a prerequisite for successful outbreak intervention. We look qualitatively at how Hunter New England Area Health Services applied these concepts to lead a successful coordination plan during an H1N109 endemic.

"Rolling out lean production systems in multinational companies:a plant-level, cross-firm study"

Rolling out lean production systems in MNCs is a complex knowledge transfer process whose design and implementation, though critical to operations performance, is underinves-tigated. Applying conce...

The Strength of Strong Ties: University Spin-offs and the Significance of Historical Relations

This article investigates the relationship between universities and academic spin-offs, with special emphasis on the antecedent conditions of, and the nature of the linkages that the spin-offs form, as well as the means for sustaining them. The present research uses an instrumental case study approach, and is also an instance of a collective case study as four companies of various size and activities have been studied together. The preliminary results indicate that the network relations are characterized by a small number of strong ties to universities, with a high degree of trust and informality. Although fruitful for the transfer of complex knowledge, the strength of the ties also make them difficult to substitute, which may lead to problems as the spin-offs are highly dependent on continued basic research support. This may in turn lead to implications for policy at university, as well as higher levels (Less)

Vertical Marketing Systems for Complex Products: A Triadic Perspective

Products that require extensive and complex information flows among suppliers, intermediary vendors, and customers often pose particular challenges to the vertical marketing system. Using social network theory, the authors investigate buyers' preferences for specific patterns of relationships among buyers, intermediary vendors, and suppliers of complex products. Using a conjoint experiment with actual and prospective buyers of integrated computer networks and services, the authors find that beyond their dyadic interaction with a vendor, buyers take into account the buyer-vendor-supplier triad. Specifically, buyers value sequences of selective strong ties as well as sequences of more numerous weak ties. This is consistent with theoretical propositions that strong ties facilitate the mobilization of support and the transfer of complex knowledge, whereas nonoverlapping weak ties facilitate the gathering of intelligence and the monitoring of new developments. The authors find only mixed evidence that buyers value direct access to suppliers when strong ties exist between the vendor and suppliers, as predicted by the third-party sanctioning argument in social network theory. In addition, they find that interaction intensity and valence do not always have the same effects, thus providing criterion validation to the bidimensional nature of tie strength that has been documented in previous research.

Integrating Written Communication within Engineering Curricula

The University of Delaware has a strong, proud tradition of educating students to become engineers. As for any educational institution, however, we also strive to improve our curricula to keep in step with the demands of the engineering profession. One skill well recognized as needing improvement for engineering ~and most other! students is writing. Fortunately, the University of Delaware also has a strong, proud tradition in technical writing as a discipline within the English Department. At the University of Delaware, we thus pooled our efforts between the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Business and Technical Writing Program of the English Department to integrate writing skills more fully into the engineering curricula. Communication skills, both written and oral, remain key to professional success within the engineering profession. Moreover, a call for collaboration between engineering and English departments was sounded as far back as 1911 by Samuel Chandler Earle, at Tufts University ~Kynnel 1995!. A century later, this need for stronger communication skills among engineering students, and for evaluation of programs to foster these skills, has been formally identified by the Accreditation Board in Engineering and Technology ~ABET! as one of 11 key attributes. Specifically, the ABET Engineering Criteria 2000 emphasize communication skills within an integrated education for engineering students ~Engineering 1998!. At the foundation of this education initiative stands a clear understanding of differences between simple data collection or compilation and complex knowledge transfer ~Piirto 1996!. In other words, simply amassing data is not sufficient; rather, today’s professionals must be able to interpret and repackage the data for audiences. Hence, students need to move beyond the first stage so that they can begin to assess, interpret, and shape messages. Components of format and design, audience analysis, argument strategy, and related topics can be handled through not only technical matter in advanced courses, but also nontechnical topics

The Search-Transfer Problem: The Role of Weak Ties in Sharing Knowledge across Organization Subunits

This paper combines the concept of weak ties from social network research and the notion of complex knowledge to explain the role of weak ties in sharing knowledge across organization subunits in a multiunit organization. I use a network study of 120 new-product development projects undertaken by 41 divisions in a large electronics company to examine the task of developing new products in the least amount of time. Findings show that weak interunit ties help a project team search for useful knowledge in other subunits but impede the transfer of complex knowledge, which tends to require a strong tie between the two parties to a transfer. Having weak interunit ties speeds up projects when knowledge is not complex but slows them down when the knowledge to be transferred is highly complex. I discuss the implications of these findings for research on social networks and product innovation.

Hypertext Learning Environments, Cognitive Flexibility, and the Transfer of Complex Knowledge: An Empirical Investigation

Although the use of hypertext systems for learning complex knowledge has been attracting recent attention, we currently have poor theoretical and research perspectives from which to understand special characteristics associated with learning in nonlinear and multidimensional hypertext instructional systems. A study was conducted to investigate a theory-based hypertext learning environment that provided instruction in a complex and ill-structured domain. The experimental treatment incorporated several features derived from recent cognitive learning theory, in particular a hypertext procedure that presented the instructional material in multiple contexts to highlight different facets of the knowledge. The main results of the study revealed that although the control treatment led to higher performance on the measures of memory for factual knowledge, the more hypertext-like treatment promoted superior knowledge transfer. Overall, these findings suggest hypertext learning environments that present the instructed knowledge by explicitly demonstrating critical interrelationships between abstract and case-specific knowledge components in multiple contexts will help prepare students to use knowledge in new ways and in new situations.