Abstract
Synopsis
This thesis takes the approach of the knowledge-based view of organisations, as it argues that learning potential influences firm competitiveness. The connection between knowledge and innovation may seem self-evident, but is at the same time difficult to specify. Common sense will tell us that creation of new knowledge must be at the core of every innovation. To be able to make something new, existing knowledge must be creatively re-combined, or new insights must emerge. For actors to launch a product innovation on the market, some learning must have occurred. The process of learning that is inherent in the innovation process is at the core of this thesis.
This master thesis endeavours to explore what conditions must be present for knowledge creation and knowledge transfer to occur, both inside a firm and in an innovation collaboration. As a means to accomplish this task, a case study of fifteen Oslo-based companies in a wide variety of sectors was carried out. The main purpose of the empirical work was to test some basic theoretical assumptions of what the typical learning and innovating organisation looks like.
The problem concerns what factors that must be present in firms, and innovation collaborations, for significant learning to be generated.
Four different but related perspectives were chosen to explore this problem:
1: The relationship between organisational form and learning potential
2: Interaction forms suited for knowledge creation and transfer
3: The strategies firms should use, and are using, to ensure knowledge transfer
4: The relationship between learning and innovation and connection to knowledge infrastructure.
The firms included in this study far exceed the categories theory assumes are coherent with learning and innovating organisations. One tentative conclusion that can be drawn from this limited empirical basis is that these theoretical claims are overly assertive and that theory should be revised on the basis of more case studies of learning and innovation at the micro level.