Diverging Life Worlds in Corporate Cooperation – What it Takes for Cross-Boundary Knowledge Transfer
33 Pages Posted: 28 May 2009
Date Written: May 28, 2009
Abstract
In this article the creation and transfer of knowledge across sociocultural boundaries that separate different life worlds and systems of meaning are treated from a social-constructivist perspective. We concentrate on the constructivist discourse (Schultz & Stabell, 2004, p. 555), in which knowledge is not an entity independent of an observer but rather something rooted exclusively in and shaped by interaction. In other words, it is developed and perpetuated through interdependent processes of attribution and validation. “Knowledge is continuously shaping and being shaped by the social practices of individuals in communities. Thus knowledge is both the outcome of situated action as well as the input to it” (p. 558). As far as we can see, however, social-constructivist approaches to knowledge transfer (Boland and Tenkasi, 1995; Brown & Duguid, 1998, 2001) are not embedded in social theory. The goal of our study is therefore to help provide that framework at the theoretical level. In practical terms, our intent is to sharpen awareness of the relevance that supraindividual factors have in cross-boundary knowledge transfer.
Keywords: knowledge transfer, constructivism, grounded theory
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