Building competitive advantage through knowledge management: Relating Knowledge Specificity to Innovation

摘要

The impact of knowledge management on competitiveness is widely acknowledged. Drawing on the knowledge management literature we relate the macroscopic factors of risk, innovation and competitive advantage to the design of the basic knowledge unit. Focusing on one aspect of the design, specificity, we observe that high levels of specificity can be used to present prescriptive solutions to a community of practice in ways that that constrain innovation. Where such an outcome is inconsistent with the organization's strategy, and hence undesirable, a later adjustment can be made at the presentation layer that abstracts unwanted detail. In contrast, a formalism that promotes innovation across contexts through a low degree of specificity cannot later be reversed. If this is inconsistent with an organization's strategy an increase in innovation may be at the expense of a reduction in strategic alignment, an increase in market and technical risk, and ultimately a reduction in competitiveness.