Both knowledge and networks are crucial to many organizations (Arikan, 2009; Cross and Cummings, 2004; Zaheer and Bell, 2005). The competitive landscape propels firms to innovate and explore new opportunities, so as to outmaneuver competitors and achieve a competitive edge. Since knowledge is a bedrock ingredient of innovation, it has become significant to success (Grant, 1996). However, the knowledge required to innovate is not always readily available within a firm. To meet such deficiencies, firms can create knowledge internally or they can acquire knowledge through external constituents (Van Wijk et al., 2008). Networks benefit firms in gaining access to knowledge, in facilitating learning processes, in transferring knowledge, and in fostering knowledge integration and creation. In this chapter, state-of-the-art and received insights of how networks facilitate the management and organization of knowledge and learning are reviewed and consolidated, while prospective research avenues are discussed.
The study of knowledge and networks in the management field traces its origins back to the 1950s and 1960s, with seminal contributions such as those of Cangelosi and Dill (1965), Penrose (1959), and Evan (1965). Over the years, research in knowledge and networks has developed into two strong individual research streams. Recently firms have started to establish networks to gain access to and facilitate the organization and management of knowledge. Research in which knowledge and networks are examined conjointly has therefore gained momentum predominantly during the past decades.
Networks are characterized by linkages between actors that are created in a temporal or semi-temporal fashion, commonly centering on a problem or issue (Baker, 1992). Actors in the network seek to access each other’s resources, to learn from each other and to integrate each other’s knowledge so as to solve the problem or to pass the issue, and a new series of linkages can be formed with the same or a different set of actors.
Firms progressively develop and nurture networks as a means to seek and transfer knowledge, yet their use has been surrounded by ambiguity. The term ‘network’ has become an evocative metaphor ascribed to many collaborative ventures or relationships (Baker, 1992; Jones et al., 1997; Nohria, 1992). The ambiguity surrounding networks has two main antecedents.1 First, the study of networks involves multiple units and levels of analysis. Second, networks have advanced both as an analytical tool employed by researchers and as a governance mode applied by organizations (Nohria, 1992; see also, Koka and Prescott, 2002; Tsai and Ghoshal, 1998). The disparity in units and levels of analysis at which networks have been studied, and the different applications of networks have emerged and evolved along three streams of research: social networks, alliance networks, and organizational networks.2 Mainly used as an analytical tool, a social network perspective considers every organization or set of organizations as a network regardless of governance mode and structure. Alliance networks and organizational networks, on the other hand, have emerged as discrete modes of governance. Although the three perspectives are non-mistakenly concerned with network organization, each has contributed uniquely to the study of knowledge and networks. In this chapter, the facilitatory role of the three types of networks in seeking, transferring, integrating, and creating knowledge will be reviewed. Additionally, because some research streams have recently appeared instrumental to others, the areas are heeded in which the streams complement one another.
The chapter is organized as follows. In the next section, main conclusions drawn from research on the manifestation of knowledge in social, alliance, and organizational networks are presented. In the third section, the performance implications of networks and knowledge are heeded. Then, it is considered that networks by themselves may be a form of knowledge. In the final section, current understanding of knowledge and networks is discussed and future research directions are suggested.