Journal Article Critique “From common to uncommon Knowledge: Foundations of Firm-specific use of Knowledge as a Resource”
Journal Article Critique to the article
“From common to uncommon Knowledge:
Foundations of Firm-specific use of Knowledge as a Resource”
Authors: Rajiv Nag and Dennis A. Gioia
Published: Academy of Management Journal, 2012, Vol. 55, No. 2, 421–457
Course: Business Research Methods, Dr. Johannes Rank, Winter Term 2012/13
Submitted: January 28th 2013
Technische Universität Berlin
Research question: “How can managers create uncommon knowledge when rivals have access to similar, commonly available knowledge?” (page 425)
Author’s purpose: The importance of knowledge is well established in research. The knowledge-based theory considers knowledge as the most strategically significant resource of a firm. Notwithstanding, the authors illustrate that it is not known much about “how firms create, acquire, and apply knowledge better than other firms” (page 421).
Nag and Gioia set up a qualitative study to develop an inductive model to reveal the processes how and under which circumstances managers transform common into distinctive knowledge. The foundry industry in the northeast and midatlantic United States served as study population. The authors conducted 53 interviews with CEOs and other key members involving 22 different foundries.
Major conclusions: The model developed three dimensions how executives differ in the process from common to uncommon knowledge: executive knowledge schemes, executive scanning and uncommon knowledge use. The study indicates the personal impact of executive behavior how they identified, searched for and used uncommon knowledge: Under same external circumstances they act in different ways to address strategic situations.
(1) Interpretation of the results
The interviews were structured like following. There are three aggregated dimensions (executive knowledge schemes, executive scanning and uncommon knowledge use). Each of these dimensions consists of two second-order themes. These feed on the first-order
“From common to uncommon Knowledge:
Foundations of Firm-specific use of Knowledge as a Resource”
Authors: Rajiv Nag and Dennis A. Gioia
Published: Academy of Management Journal, 2012, Vol. 55, No. 2, 421–457
Course: Business Research Methods, Dr. Johannes Rank, Winter Term 2012/13
Submitted: January 28th 2013
Technische Universität Berlin
Research question: “How can managers create uncommon knowledge when rivals have access to similar, commonly available knowledge?” (page 425)
Author’s purpose: The importance of knowledge is well established in research. The knowledge-based theory considers knowledge as the most strategically significant resource of a firm. Notwithstanding, the authors illustrate that it is not known much about “how firms create, acquire, and apply knowledge better than other firms” (page 421).
Nag and Gioia set up a qualitative study to develop an inductive model to reveal the processes how and under which circumstances managers transform common into distinctive knowledge. The foundry industry in the northeast and midatlantic United States served as study population. The authors conducted 53 interviews with CEOs and other key members involving 22 different foundries.
Major conclusions: The model developed three dimensions how executives differ in the process from common to uncommon knowledge: executive knowledge schemes, executive scanning and uncommon knowledge use. The study indicates the personal impact of executive behavior how they identified, searched for and used uncommon knowledge: Under same external circumstances they act in different ways to address strategic situations.
(1) Interpretation of the results
The interviews were structured like following. There are three aggregated dimensions (executive knowledge schemes, executive scanning and uncommon knowledge use). Each of these dimensions consists of two second-order themes. These feed on the first-order