Charting the organisational knowledge-creation process: An innovation-process perspective

Organisational knowledge creation (OKC) is a complex and relatively uncharted path, especially in terms of the dynamic journey that new knowledge makes from its generation to crystallisation. This journey is crucial for managers to understand in order to allocate limited resources effectively. In this paper, we employ a qualitative approach and explore this journey as it unfolds during the early phases of the new product development process in 10 cases of discontinuous innovation. We develop a knowledge-conceptualisation framework which not only illustrates the OKC journey as it progresses along a number of empirically derived stages and how these overlap with one another, but also how individual and teams contribute to or interact along these stages to create new knowledge. We thus provide a solid basis for the much-needed theoretical advances in knowledge creation and present specific benchmarks required for managers to facilitate the knowledge-creation process within their organisations.