Knowledge Integration and Innovation

Technology-based firms continue to compete primarily on innovation, and are continuously required to present new solutions to an exacting market. As technological complexity and specialization intensifies, firms increasingly need to integrate and co-ordinate knowledge by means of project groups, diversified organizations, inter-organizational partnerships, and strategic alliances. Innovation processes have progressively become interdisciplinary, collaborative, inter-organizational, and international, and a firm's ability to synthesize knowledge across disciplines, organizations, and geographical locations has a major influence on its viability and success. This book demonstrates how knowledge integration is crucial in facilitating innovation within modern firms. It provides original, detailed empirical studies of prerequisites, mechanisms, and outcomes of knowledge integration processes on several organizational levels, from key individuals, projects, and internal organizations, to collaboration between firms. It stresses the need to understand knowledge integration as a multi-level phenomenon, which requires a broad repertoire of organizational and technical means. It further clarifies the need for strong internal capabilities for exploiting external knowledge, reveals how costs of knowledge integration affect outcomes and strategic decisions, and discusses the managerial implications of fostering knowledge integration, providing practical guidance and support for managers of knowledge integration in high-technology enterprises.INTRODUCTION ; 1. Exploring Knowledge Integration and Innovation ; 2. Knowledge Integration and Innovation: A Survey of the Field ; PART I: PEOPLE AND PROCESSES ; 3. Knowledge Integration and Creation in Projects: Towards a Progressive Epistemology ; 5. Inventors as Innovators and Knowledge Integrators ; 6. Participants in the Process of Knowledge Integration ; PART II: PROJECTS AND PARTNERSHIPS ; 6. Knowledge Integration Processes in New Product Development: on the Dynamics of Deadlines and Architectures ; 7. Knowledge Integration in Inter-firm R&D Collaboration: How do Firms Manage Problems of Coordination and Cooperation? ; 8. Knowledge Integration in a P-form Corporation: Project Epochs in the Evolution of Asea/ABB 1945-2000. ; PART III: STRATEGIES AND OUTCOMES ; 9. Knowledge Integration Challenges when Outsourcing Manufacturing ; 10. Trade-Offs in Make-Buy Decisions: Exploring Operating Realities of Knowledge Integration and Innovation ; 11. Creative Accumulation: Integrating New and Established Technologies in Periods of Discontinuous Change ; CONCLUSION ; 12. Lessons and Insights for Managers