Building Design Capabilities: A Focus on Knowledge Systematisation within Firms

Abstract

Scholarly efforts within the evolutionary theories of the firm are increasingly attempting to bridge the micro and macro perspectives of capabilities research to learn more about the growth of the firm. This paper tackles this challenge by proposing a focus on the mechanisms of knowledge systematisation within firms, that is, those mechanisms of knowledge abstraction and transmission through different levels of aggregation. Traditional approaches have focused on the how routines and capabilities can trigger further learning. In this paper it is argued that a focus on learning events as a way to capture emerging knowledge can provide a better understanding of firms' learning dynamics. By analysing in-depth interview data regarding design-intensive home furnishing sectors in Italy, we focus on identifying those events that trigger relevant learning experiences. By 'relevant' we refer here to those events that express a coherent sequence of activities enabling the articulation of new product development-related knowledge. The findings yield an understanding of how a knowledge-intensive activity like design that cuts across a firm's organisational structure fosters the emergence of capabilities, which originate from one-off solutions for a particular problem and can be further replicated to solve other types of problems.

Keywords: Organisational capabilities, Product design, Learning event, Knowledge systematisation

JEL Classification: O32