Knowledge sharing and value co-creation: Designing a service system for fostering inter-generational cooperation

Abstract

This paper highlights the necessity of knowledge transfer and sharing between young and old people, to avoid skills and expertises loss by the organizations and for co-creating value. The paper depicts how the use of a digital platform providing a common place in which people act and interact could facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experience between these two generations, thus fostering value co-creation. A case study describing the “5020 project” is presented in which this kind of a digital platform is developed. In this scenario, mixed work groups, composed by young and old people, are created, in which people, working together, share the knowledge acquired in the past (respectively at school and on the job by experiences), co-creating value and providing good solutions to requests of enterprises.