Integrating Knowledge and Knowledge Processes: A Critical Incident Study of Product Development Projects

Various scholars have argued that knowledge processes in organizations are integrally linked in practice. The extant literature though treats them separately and thereby disregards the interactions and tensions between them. A result of this way of studying knowledge processes is that little is known about their relative importance and how they work together. This paper addresses this gap in the literature through a critical incident study of knowledge processes in product development projects of high‐tech small firms. The paper starts off with a conceptual framework comprised of four knowledge processes—knowledge creation, knowledge application, knowledge integration, and knowledge retention—and their interactions. From the framework, three hypotheses are derived concerning the importance of these types of knowledge processes and their interactions, which in turn guide the empirical research. The hypotheses were tested in a retrospective study of 58 critical incidents in product development projects of 16 high‐tech small firms in the Netherlands. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews using the critical incident interviewing technique. Interviewees were asked to “relive” and describe particular successful and unsuccessful examples of product development projects in the past. The analysis of the interview data focused upon whether there are differences between successful and unsuccessful projects in the types of knowledge processes and interactions that are performed. After coding all data into the various types of knowledge processes and interactions of the framework, t‐tests were used to test for significance of differences. The findings indicate that the difference between success and failure in these projects lies primarily in the extent to which knowledge integration and integration between knowledge processes have taken place. These findings demonstrate that, of the four knowledge processes, knowledge integration had the most significant impact on product development project success. The study demonstrates furthermore that higher degrees of interactions between knowledge processes were also associated with project success. Despite the limitations of this study, these results provide empirical support for the claim that integration is a key factor in organizations in general and in innovation projects in particular. For academics, this suggests further research on knowledge integration, and integration between knowledge processes, is warranted. For practitioners, it means that integration is a key process to be considered when choosing and executing new product development projects.     

From mind to market: A global,dynamic analysis of R&D

Existing models of R&D are not easily reconciled with four observable aspects of R&D: initial technologies (ideas) need to be developed further, only a minority of initial ideas are successfully brought to the market, production and process innovations take place simultaneously (whereby, initially, there is no production at all), and process innovations are implemented for technologies that are destined to leave the market. We present a detailed bifurcation analysis for a dynamic model of R&D that captures these observations in one, unifying framework. As we provide a global analysis, we do not limit initial technologies to carry marginal costs that are below the choke price. We show that there always exists a critical value of initial marginal cost above which the firm does not initiate any (R&D) activity; the path to the saddle-point steady state is never globally optimal. We also sketch some tentative policy implications of our analysis.     

Managing vulnerability: the implementation of vulnerability reduction measures

Activities involving hazardous substances may cause safety risks to the environment. In addition to hazard reduction measures, such as implementing safety management systems at hazardous facilities, and exposure reduction measures, such as employing safe distances between vulnerable objects and hazardous activities, safety risks can be further minimised through the implementation of vulnerability reduction measures. In the area near where activities involving dangerous substances are being carried out, measures can be taken to reduce the vulnerability, such as increasing the possibilities for emergency response and evacuation. This paper examines what the issues influencing the consideration and implementation of vulnerability reduction measures are. This is done through an examination of land use planning projects in the Netherlands and an analysis of two examinations from the National Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate on the implementation of vulnerability reduction measures to discuss the representativeness of the findings for the Netherlands. The examinations, including the examinations of the Inspectorate, show that the consideration of vulnerability reduction measures is narrower than required by Dutch rules and regulations. Additionally, the implementation of measures is limited. Only half of the vulnerability reduction measures that are adopted in land use plans are actually implemented. Important factors that hampered the consideration and adoption of measures are the restrictions of actual rules and regulation with respect to the enforceability of measures, the limited expertise of those involved and the lack of clarity in tasks and roles regarding the consideration and monitoring of vulnerability reduction measures. More fundamentally, the effectiveness of measures and the need for further risk reduction was discussed. Consequently, more insight is required into the costs and benefits of vulnerability reduction measures and if a more explicit consideration of vulnerability in land use planning practices is desired, elaboration will be needed in the areas of planning legislations, procedures and expertise.     

Don’t just fix it, make it better! Using frontline service employees to improve recovery performance

This study examines how frontline service employees (FSEs) can learn from recovery services and improve their performance accordingly. While research recognizes that FSEs can fulfill an innovation role by sourcing customer knowledge and developing ideas for performance improvement, it remains unclear whether such a role benefits or impairs the FSE’s primary recovery service role of providing efficient and thorough solutions to customer problems. This research models both FSE roles and explores under which conditions it is beneficial for FSEs to engage in an additional innovation role. The model is tested using survey and objective data from 134 FSEs. PLS results reveal that the innovation role is detrimental because sourcing knowledge from customers takes time and effort, but also beneficial because knowledge sourcing triggers FSEs to develop ideas for improvement, which positively influence their recovery speed and recovery quality. Managers can strengthen these positive effects of knowledge sourcing by optimizing an FSE’s service portfolio (i.e., the combination of products, customers, and failures an employee is responsible for), which leverages the effects of knowledge sourcing on ideas for improvement.     

On the moral hazard problem without the first-order approach

We study the moral hazard problem without the first-order approach or other common structure. We present sufficient conditions under which the shadow value of simultaneously tightening the minimum payment and individual rationality constraints has a simple and intuitive expression. We then show how this expression can be used to perform comparative statics exercises in which we study (i) the effect of a change in the agent?s wealth on the well-being of the principal; and (ii) the effects of the outside option and minimum payment on the effort level optimally implemented.     

Empirical relevance of the Hillman condition for revealed comparative advantage: 10 stylized facts

The theoretically necessary and sufficient condition for the correspondence between ‘revealed’ comparative advantage and pre-trade relative prices derived by Hillman (1980 Hillman, AL. 1980. Observations on the relation between ‘revealed comparative advantage’ and comparative advantage as indicated by pre-trade relative prices. Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, 116: 315–21. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) is analysed empirically for virtually all countries of the world over an extended period of time. This yields 10 stylized facts, including that (i) violations of the Hillman condition are small as a share of the number of observations, but substantial as a share of the value of world exports, (ii) violations occur relatively frequently in the period 1970–1984 and more rarely in the period 1985–1997 and (iii) violations occur foremost in primary product and natural resource intensive sectors and for countries in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. An additional bonus of verifying the Hillman condition in empirical research is its ability to identify erroneously classified trade flows.     

Contract farmer and poultry farm efficiency in Bangladesh: a data envelopment analysis

The objective of this article is to determine the efficiency of the poultry farm in Bangladesh and to assess the influence of contract farming system, using a data envelopment analysis. Seventy-five commercial poultry farms (25 and 50 independent and contract farms, respectively) were randomly selected. The results reveal that efficiency scores vary across sample farms. To explain some of these variations, the efficiency scores were regressed on some human capital variables and farming system using a Tobit model. The study also estimates elasticities to provide the information on the magnitude of the influence of variables on Technical Efficiency (TE), Allocative Efficiency (AE) and Economic Efficiency (EE). The results show that the contracting system is positively and significantly related to the farm's TE, AE and EE. This is expected because under contractual agreement, in order to obtain sufficient supplies of the right quality of poultry meat at the right time, the company provides technical know how assistance through company's recruited supervisor, production inputs and services, and production credit along with intensive supervision, which in turn improves farm efficiency. Thus, by receiving technical know how contract farmers have gained more knowledge on their resource and practices, which enables them to use resources more efficiently. Empirical results can provide crucial information to policy makers that improve poultry farm efficiency.     

Latent class modeling of website users’ search patterns: Implications for online market segmentation

Appropriate modeling of web use patterns may yield very relevant marketing and retailing information. We propose using a model-based clustering approach for market segmentation based on website users’ search patterns. We not only provide a detailed discussion of technical issues such as the problem of the selection of the number of segments, but also a very interesting empirical illustration of the potentials of the proposed approach.