Knowledge Management: on Impediments - Research Proposal Example

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT RESEARCH ON IMPEDIMENTS IN CONTEXT TO CoPS Introduction For international business China stands out as the most attractive destination for Multinationals. Its huge market, open door policies, improving infrastructure and growing consumer spending invites huge FDI investments. It has become the largest host country for FDI and China’s WTO membership has resulted in over 400 of the top Fortune 500 firms entering China (Xian, 2002). There has been a proliferation of industries in China and one of the outstanding examples is that of the TFT-LCD which are Complex Products and Systems (CoPS). CoPS are high cost goods with various inter-connected and customized subsystems and are aimed at mass markets. The strength of CoPS lies in the resourcefulness of its supply chain. Under a normal supply chain system the links in the chain may be strong but under CoPS they have to be highly knowledge based as technology and innovation are the foundations of CoPS. This study will undertake to explore the Knowledge Management under CoPS and to find how vertical integration affects production of TFT-LCD in the Chinese Market context. 2 Literature Review In a traditional set-up the collaboration is between two firms with defined transactions and the relationship is that of a buyer and seller. The transfer of knowledge is simple and confined to description of quality and properties. Products too are well defined and innovation is limited to improvement of the same product. But a CoPS is a discontinuous innovation, a technological marvel. It has been suggested by, Michael L Tushman and Charles A. OReilly (1997) that discontinuous innovation is breaking with the past to create new technologies, processes, and organizational “S-curves” that result in major increases in the value delivered to the customers. The CoPS projects involve the system integrators, contractors, buyers, suppliers, and in most cases, the government and are often developed under an innovation network (Hobday and Rush, 1999). The focus is on coordination and linkages between collaborators. However transfer of knowledge is more complex, problematic and costly when collaboration takes place through socialisation (Galunic and Rodan 1998). Besides there is tacit know-how that is transferred through interactions on the basis of shared interests which is also a kind of knowledge transfer (Nonaka 1994). Where firms become part of the group, tacit and proprietary knowledge is swapped and economic opportunity is created for each other more freely (Uzzi, 1997). Oliver (1990) considers stable transactions, both in flows and in linkages, are the hallmark of inter-organisational and in-house collaborations. Das & Teng (1998) believe their purpose and pursuit is faithful partnership instead of opportunistic exploitation of each other. Constant legal connection, common or matching goals, and universal bond or social relationships among collaborative partners are all required to build up a network within organisations (Williams 2005). Lou (2000) has stressed that while success of global business depends on its ability to generate returns by using its resources it is equally important to organise and upgrade its dynamic abilities. Business dynamics demand that this be understood as fundamental for retaining or creating competitive advantage. Liu and Shou, (2004) opine that for this advantage international inter-organizational linkages, building up the mechanisms of long-term commitment and cooperation have to be built by firms. Vertical integration is the name for collaborative arrangements between different firms’s manufacturing diverse sub-systems that will eventually form the final product. In this age of specialization and focussed activities it has become vital for all component and sub-system manufacturers to come together to develop a CoPS project in a vertically integrated environment to ensure perfected results. Vertical integration has proved its usefulness in ordinary or normal products as it is a two way benefit for both supplier and producer. In CoPS it assumes an even greater role as it is multi-dimensional as well as based on sharing of high grade and sophisticated technology. This has resulted in production synergies of a high order that has kept competition at bay. In mass production scenario there is threat of external vulnerability and competition can copy the codified knowledge (Hall and Andriani, 2002). But this becomes a protector in disguise for CoPS. Reverse engineering is relatively difficult and, even without any patent protection, some degree of knowledge is of no use for competitors (Bonaccorsi and Giuri, 2000). By the same token, KM is equally difficult to disseminate within the collaborative environment. The real challenge for KM lies in the building of a long term relationship in which commitment (Mavondo and Rodrigo, 2001), and trust (Li, 2005), play vital roles. These relation based challenges cannot be ignored while KM is applied. 3 Research Questions In KM transfers the main barrier is maintaining consistency and compatibility of all sub-systems. Difficulties arise in vertical integration due to lack of trust between partners or divisions of the same organisation. Other barriers are independent objectives, the complexity of the projects and even different cultures of the organisations. (Das and Teng, 1998). Normally innovations are the backbone of CoPS. In traditional settings all in-house development are closely guarded and patent protected but in CoPS environment they are fostered by different partners and this creates conflicts. In a CoPS context, technical problems often take place during development processes (Hobday and Rush, 1999) and greater degree of problem solving is required. Further, to understand and combine knowledge from sources across borders becomes an embryonic issue in KM and product innovation research (Lynn et al., 2000). To tackle these problems knowledge transfer is becoming increasingly important but there is not adequate research in this direction to comment on the nature, extent and means of Knowledge Management (KM). This research will look into methods and problems of KM transfer within inter-organisational CoPS collaborative framework and come to some conclusions bout possible approaches for solving them. 4 Research Methods There are a few large players in the Chinese market and it is suggested that structured interviews be conducted from the view point of gaining insight on KM methods and perceptions. Use cconvenience sampling or non-probability sampling strategy by getting hold of the most easily accessible people to participate in the study. The research approach is to be designed on two levels. First on individual level to systematically collect descriptions of existing experience in order to describe or explain what is going on; data are to be obtained through direct questioning of a sample of respondents. This questionnaire is to be segregated into several components like, value of KM, usefulness of KM, extent of KM, and the difficulties on sharing know-how. The second stage is to collect case studies to find out the nature of KM when it is applied in practice and the extent of its usefulness and the ease or difficulty of its dissemination. This will explain the extent of the veracity of the claim that KM is the binding force of the vertical integration in CoPS. It is believed that a study of these will shed more light on the subject which is rather neglected so far. 5 Reflections There are three essential elements of dynamic abilities; possession, deployment and upgradation, that are critical for global operations. Specialization has become a practice and this call for a high degree of participation by various actors to bring about economies of scale in CoPS. Production often moves offshore in search of cost effectiveness but to offset a firm’s disadvantage in a host country these capabilities are useful especially in a CoPS environment. Vertical integration helps to create an environment for prosperity of the CoPS. But the essential feature of the success is in knowledge management. This knowledge is primarily technology based as CoPS is fundamentally founded on innovations. A technologically new product means that its technological features or projected uses are drastically different from those of former produced products or processes. Such innovations can involve basically new technologies or can be based on merging existing technologies for new uses, or can be an offshoot of the use of new knowledge. A technologically improved product would also mean that current performance has been considerably enhanced or upgraded. A relatively simple product or process may be improved, in terms of either better performance or lower cost, through use of high-performing components or materials or a use of a complex product or process which encompasses a number of integrated technical sub-systems may be improved by partial changes to one of the sub-systems. 6 Conclusions It has been established that the success of CoPS lies in the vertical integration of all collaborators who are more akin to partners and work for a common aim. That such an objective require a high degree of knowledge sharing is obvious enough but not enough academic literature is available on the subject. It is not quite clear as to how this management should be organised in order to improve performances of all partners and to contribute t the strengthening of the CoPS. The purpose of this study will be to fill the gaps in the area of understanding and dissemination of knowledge management. 7 Bibliography Bonaccorsi A., Giuri P. 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