ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL SIZE AND FORMALIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PROCESSES

Year 2009, Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 59 - 64, 01.12.2009

Martin Spraggon Virginia Bodolıca

Abstract

 In spite of the fact that the ability to transfer knowledge is critical for securing a firm’s competitive
advantage through leveraging scarce internal resources, few investigations have been conducted to date to
systematically explore intra-firm knowledge transfer processes put in place by small firms operating in turbulent
environments. Drawing upon an exhaustive cross-case analysis of a set of knowledge transfer processes within
five small software firms, we found that these processes exhibit striking differences in their degree of
formalization in two firms of equal size. Contrary to the conventional belief held by many scholars in the
literature that assumes that the degree of process formalization increases in direct proportion with firm size, our
results demonstrate that the major factors explaining the variance in the degree of formalization of intra-firm
knowledge transfer processes are the CEO personality, firm age, and availability of venture capital. 

Keywords

Knowledge Transfer

ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL SIZE AND FORMALIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PROCESSES

Abstract

In spite of the fact that the ability to transfer knowledge is critical for securing a firm's competitive advantage through leveraging scarce internal resources, few investigations have been conducted to date to systematically explore intra-firm knowledge transfer processes put in place by small firms operating in turbulent environments. Drawing upon an exhaustive cross-case analysis of a set of knowledge transfer processes within five small software firms, we found that these processes exhibit striking differences in their degree of formalization in two firms of equal size. Contrary to the conventional belief held by many scholars in the literature that assumes that the degree of process formalization increases in direct proportion with firm size, our results demonstrate that the major factors explaining the variance in the degree of formalization of intra-firm knowledge transfer processes are the CEO personality, firm age, and availability of venture capital.

Keywords

Knowledge Transfer, Organizational Size

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