The Interrelationships of Managing Knowledge and Organizational Learning: ACase Study of a British Retailer

摘要

Customer data collected from business transactionshave long been used in the retailing industry as a basis foranalysing company performance and consumer behaviour.However, despite the widespread recognition of the valueof customer data for retailers, relatively few studies haveexamined the process by which data are transformed intoinformation and organisational knowledge. Suchtransformation is considered as part of organizationallearning. Even fewer studies have considered the dynamicsof cross-functional knowledge sharing and integrationwithin the retailing sector. To fill this gap, this research-in-progresslooks at one of the Britain’s largest retailers,Boots the Chemist (BTC), transforms its customer datainto knowledge via organizational learning. The likelycontribution to the literature is like such attempt could beconsidered as the first step towards linking up the growingdivision of organizational learning and knowledgemanagement studies. The purpose of the research is toexamine how customer data collected from businesstransactions were used as the foundation for generatingstrategically valuable information and knowledge, and howknowledge was shared and integrated across businessfunctions. Several important issues are to be highlighted inthe study, in particular: (1) the transformation of data,information and knowledge via organizational learning; (2)the integration of departmental knowledge and the creationof new organisational knowledge; (3) knowledge sharingas a socio-technical phenomenon. The case illustrates theimportance of developing and maintaining interdepartmentalrelationships as a means of sharing andintegrating strategically valuable knowledge.