The Role of Internal and External Sources of Knowledge in the Product Lifecycle in Biotechnology Sector

Part 1: Knowledge ManagementInternational audienceIn today’s highly competitive environment, addressing product management throughout its lifecycle in a more comprehensive way has become a necessity. A lot of attention has been paid to the decisions taken within the early stages of product development, which can have a great effect on the entire product life. Knowledge provides a firm with valuable and unique capabilities essential for the successful product development during its early stages. Therefore, a firm must understand how to manipulate its various knowledge sources to enhance its own performance. This article examines the dynamic behavior of the interactions and feedback mechanisms between different sources of knowledge. Using System Dynamics simulation we identify the impacts of a firm’s innovation policy on its innovative performance later in the lifecycle, and find that, in general, focusing on the exploitation of external knowledge sources is a suitable strategy, but various internal factors should be considered as well

Determinants of the level of knwoledge application: a knowledge-based and information-processing perspective

Knowledge application is of key importance in the development of successful new products. Knowledge application refers to an organization's timely response to technological change by utilizing the knowledge and technology generated into new products and processes. This study uses the knowledge-based theory of the firm and considers its roots in the information-processing approach to organization theory to identify and structure potential antecedents of knowledge application. This study develops four hypotheses concerning antecedents of knowledge application. The hypotheses are tested using data collected from 277 high-technology firms. Empirical results indicate that a long-term orientation supported by a research and development (R&D) budget, formal rewards, and information technology directly increases the level of knowledge application, while R&D co-location indirectly increases the level of knowledge application. It is surprising to find that an increase in the level of organizational redundancy reduces the level of knowledge application. The findings also suggest that information technologies, lead-user, and supplier networks do not appear to significantly influence organizational redundancy