Share it or not? – A Framework for the Transfer of Product Creation Knowledge
Year: 2010
Editor: Andreas Dagman; Rikard Söderberg
Author: Petermann, Markus Alexander; Meiwal, Thomas; Lindemann, Udo
Section: The Design Process
Page(s): 43-54
Abstract
This article illustrates a qualitative interview study into transfer of product creation knowledge by German industrial goods manufacturers within their multi-firm engineering networks. Emphasis is put on identifying knowledge types relevant in such knowledge transfer situations. A contextual approach to dealing with the distinction of data, information and knowledge for inter-firm knowledge transfer situations is established. Product creation knowledge entities derived from interviewing 25 engineers working for eight different companies were assigned to knowledge taxonomies derived from literatures on the context of engineering design and education. Analysis resulted in distributions of knowledge content types and knowledge carriers that are presented alongside with statements regarding the interviewed persons
Keywords: knowledge transfer, knowledge taxonomies, interview study, industrial goods, multi-firm networks