Knowledge Management in Innovative Companies 2

1Knowledge Transfer and Knowledge Sharing

1.1. Articulation of Chapter 1

The purpose of this chapter is to explore conceptually and practically the third step in the virtuous cycle of knowledge management. described in Volume 1, Chapter 1, which is dedicated to the transfer and sharing of the organization’s knowledge.

In section 1.2, we recall the main concepts of transfer and sharing operations that are sufficient to fully understand the case studies.

The practical exploration of knowledge transfer and sharing will then be done through case studies, respectively of a banking company (section 1.3), Sonatrach (section 1.4), Hydro-Québec (section 1.5), analysis of the choice of a knowledge transfer method (section 1.6) and an agricultural field (section 1.7).

Section 1.8 summarizes the lessons learned from these five case studies on knowledge transfer and sharing.

1.2. Introduction to knowledge transfer and sharing

This paragraph is based on the study written by Thierno Tounkara [TOU 13] (sections 1.2.1 to 1.2.5) and that written by Jean-Louis Ermine [ERM 10].

1.2.1. Introduction

The concept of knowledge transfer was introduced by [TEE 77] in the classic case of technology transfer. It can be defined as the process by which an organization regenerates and maintains a complex, causal and ambiguous set of routines in a new context [SZU 96]. This process is a key element of the knowledge management cycle and allows organizations to absorb and make optimal use of critical knowledge. ...