Disseminative capacity, organizational structure and knowledge transfer

Authors:
Fangcheng Tang;Jifeng Mu;Douglas L. MacLachlan
Affiliations:
School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100084, PR China;School of Business, Alabama A&M University, Box 429, Normal, AL 35762, United States and Department of Marketing and International Business, Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Was ...;Department of Marketing and International Business, Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington, Box 353200, Seattle, WA 98195-3200, United States
Venue:
Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal
Year:
2010

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Abstract

Knowledge transfer is an iterative process between knowledge senders and knowledge recipients. Absorptive capacity of knowledge senders has been examined in the field of organizational learning and innovation literature, and many accumulated findings have emerged. However, absorptive capacity is necessary but not sufficient to full understanding of knowledge transfer. In this paper we argue that knowledge senders' disseminative capacity, i.e., the ability of knowledge holders to efficiently, effectively, and convincingly frame knowledge in a way that other people can understand accurately and put into practice, plays an equally important role in knowledge transfer process. We examine this argument by employing a single-layer perceptron neural network model (SLPM) in a simulation study with two different network structures to get robust results. We demonstrate that both the disseminative capacity of knowledge senders and the absorptive capacity of knowledge recipients play important roles in knowledge transfer. Also, we found that the prominent knowledge holder plays a paramount role in knowledge transfer under quite different organizational structures.