Strategical Knowledge Management Knowledge Network Special Issue Presenter: Ming-Chao Wang ( 王明照 ) Hansen, M. T Knowledge networks: Explaining effective knowledge sharing in multiunit companies. Organization Science, 13(3): Kogut, B The network as knowledge: Generative rules and the emergence of structure. Strategic Management Journal, 21(3):

Strategical Knowledge Management Special Issue 2 Purpose What ’ s the knowledge network? Direction What ’ s the network? –The nature of network –The function of network What ’ s the knowledge? –The different between knowledge and information The knowledge network is ……

Strategical Knowledge Management Special Issue 3 The Nature of Network Burt (2000) and Tsai & Ghoshal (1998) –Node (actor) –Interaction (between actors) –Boundary (among actors) Don ’ t discount the arrow between actors here Established inter-unit relations as regularly occurring informal contacts between groups of people from different business units in a firm (Hansen, 2002).

Strategical Knowledge Management Special Issue 4 The Functions of Network The View from Kogut (2002) –A network is then a collection of firms, each ensconced in an identity that supports specialization and a dynamic of learning and exploration. (409) –The network not in the sense of providing access to distributed information and capabilities, but in representing a form of coordination guided by enduring principles of organization. (407) The View from Hansen (2002) –Short path lengths enable the team to know about precisely described opportunities involving related knowledge and allow it to discard information about irrelevant opportunities. (235) –Direct relations to related business units is likely to reduce the amount of time spent transferring knowledge. (235)

Strategical Knowledge Management Special Issue 5 What is the Knowledge? Knowledge = Information ?? Types of knowledge –Tangible (explicit) vs. Intangible (tacit) Definition in each research: –Knowledge is held tacitly, raising the problem of how central planners could ever know as much as decentralized firms (Kogut, 2000). (409) –Knowledge includes product-specific technical know-how, knowledge about technologies and markets, as well as knowledge embodied in existing solutions (Hansen, 2002). (234) Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning, communication, association and reasoning.

Strategical Knowledge Management Special Issue 6 The Knowledge Network is … Hansen (2002) suggested that the network of lateral inter-unit relations that enables task units to access related knowledge. (232) –Knowledge network seeks to advance understanding of knowledge sharing. (233) –Conduits for information about opportunities for knowledge sharing. (233) –It affects the effectiveness of its search for useful knowledge by being important conduits for information about opportunities. (234)

Strategical Knowledge Management Special Issue 7 Knowledge Network vs. Social network Knowledge Network Social Network Similar StructureNetwork concept (actor / interaction) RelationTrust concept (among actors) Dissimilar Governance mechanism Knowledge governance (cognition) Network governance (exchange) FlowKnowledge processing Information processing

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