Abstract
Knowledge is widely regarded as a crucial organizational resource. In the pursuit of finding novel solutions to problems, organizations combine and recombine knowledge and resources in different ways. This ultimately leads to innovation, which often is viewed as the ultimate reason d’être for organizations. While there exists a rich literature strand on knowledge management, the pervasive digitalization of entire industries creates new challenges. Different areas of knowledge are converging and organizations struggle with managing the rapidly increasing amount of heterogeneous knowledge. An increasingly popular approach to master the challenges of knowledge creation and recombination in the arena of digital innovation is the creation of Digital Innovation Labs (DIL). Although DILs provide a promising approach to the current challenges of innovating in a digital environment, we have only limited insights about DILs. To uncover how DILs facilitate knowledge management and recombination we conducted several case studies in different industries. Our results show how knowledge enters the DIL, how knowledge is applied and recombined and how knowledge is exchanged between units. Most importantly, we identify six key mechanisms that DILs use to master the challenge of knowledge management and innovation in a digital era.
Recommended Citation
Hund, Axel; Holotiuk, Friedrich; Wagner, Heinz-Theo; and Beimborn, Daniel, (2019). "KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN THE DIGITAL ERA: HOW DIGTIAL INNOVATION LABS FACILITATE KNOWLEDGE RECOMBINATION". In Proceedings of the 27th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Stockholm & Uppsala, Sweden, June 8-14, 2019. ISBN 978-1-7336325-0-8 Research Papers.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2019_rp/149