External Knowledge Integration

Abstract

As an academic field, knowledge management has concentrated on the creation, storage, retrieval, transfer, and application of knowledge within organizations, while underexposing external knowledge (e.g., Alavi & Leidner, 2001). Although the importance of external knowledge is well recognized (e.g., Cohen & Levinthal, 1990), there remains a need for a better understanding of the organizational processes through which external knowledge is integrated (Grant, 1996; Ranft & Lord, 2002). In particular, we believe that a holistic view on knowledge integration (KI) is both important and lacking. In this article, we address this lacuna in the literature by proposing a process model of KI consisting of three stages¾identification, acquisition, and utilization of external knowledge. Our objective is to propose a model consisting of modular subprocesses that parsimoniously reflect the variety of KI concepts in the literature. This model is useful to scholars and practitioners because it provides a better understanding of the various KI subprocesses by putting them together in a coherent way. Such understanding serves as bedrock for solving KI problems and for designing KI solutions (cf. Markus, Majchrzak, & Gasser, 2002). Request access from your librarian to read this chapter's full text.

Cite this paper

@incollection{kraaijenbrink2011external,
  title = {{External Knowledge Integration}},
  author = {Kraaijenbrink, Jeroen and Wijnhoven, Fons},
  booktitle = {IGI Global eBooks},
  pages = {308--319},
  year = {2011},
  doi = {10.4018/9781599049311.ch030}
}

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