Benchmarking knowledge production capabilities in organizations

Abstract

Knowledge production management is the activities performed in organizations to extract knowledge from internal and external sources. Literature has identified the support and governance capabilities of knowledge production in an organization: knowledge leadership, knowledge coordination, knowledge measurement, and knowledge control. How well these knowledge production capabilities are executed in organizations depends on the applied sourcing strategy. Organizations may produce or consume knowledge through an insourcing or outsourcing strategy. The purpose of the paper is to explore the state of knowledge production capabilities in organizations when controlling for the preferred sourcing strategy. Through a questionnaire, quantitative data is collected from 60 Danish MBA students representing business organizations and analyzed applying cluster analysis and regression modelling. The results show that a majority of the sample organizations hold a low maturity level for knowledge production. Furthermore, results do demonstrate that an insourcing strategy increases an organization's knowledge production capabilities. However, outsourcing can lead to ambidexterity in decision-making.