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Designing Firms for Knowledge Acquisition and Absorptive Capacity

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Organization Design

Part of the book series: Information and Organization Design Series ((INOD,volume 6))

Abstract

To survive, firms must acquire innovation-relevant knowledge from their environment. In spite of the importance of knowledge acquisition to the firm, the organization design field is without either an elaboration of the multiple processes through which firms acquire such knowledge or a field-research grounded set of design guidelines concerning organizational practices likely to result in timely and reliable knowledge acquisition. This chapter describes in detail six processes firms commonly use to acquire technical knowledge and, drawing on literatures in technology management, knowledge management, and human resources management, it further describes field-research based practices that enable firms to make these processes effective. The chapter content contributes to the literatures on organization design, organizational learning, and absorptive capacity.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station B6300, Austin, Texas, 78712-0210

    George P. Huber

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  1. George P. Huber
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Duke University, NC, USA

    Richard M. Burton

  2. University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

    Dorthe Døjbak Håkonsson  & Bo Eriksen  & 

  3. Pennsylvania State University, USA

    Charles C. Snow

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Huber, G.P. (2006). Designing Firms for Knowledge Acquisition and Absorptive Capacity. In: Burton, R.M., Håkonsson, D.D., Eriksen, B., Snow, C.C. (eds) Organization Design. Information and Organization Design Series, vol 6. Springer, Boston, MA . https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-34173-0_12

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