Knowledge governance is characterized as a distinctive research subject, the understanding of which cuts across diverse fields in management. In particular, it represents an intersection of knowledge management, strategic management, and theories of the firm. Knowledge governance considers how deployment of governance mechanisms influences knowledge processes: sharing, retaining, and creating knowledge. We survey the papers in this volume of the special issue, and discuss the remaining research challenges.
EXPLORING KNOWLEDGE GOVERNANCE AbstractKnowledge governance is characterized as a distinctive research subject, the understanding of which cuts across diverse fields in management. In particular, it represents an intersection of knowledge management, strategic management, and theories of the firm. Knowledge governance considers how deployment of governance mechanisms influences knowledge processes: sharing, retaining, and creating knowledge. We survey the papers in this volume of the special issue, and discuss the remaining research challenges.
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WHAT IS "KNOWLEDGE GOVERNANCE?"Knowledge governance concerns how processes of knowledge use, creation, retention, integration, and sharing are influenced through the deployment of governance mechanisms.
1As a subject of management research, knowledge governance considers the interplay between knowledge processes and organizational processes. It concerns such issues as the organization of knowledge work, how HRM practices influence knowledge sharing and creation, the deployment of governance mechanisms in strategic alliances to reach shared knowledgerelated goals, the design of reward systems to foster knowledge sharing and creation, and the choice of organizational structure to support knowledge creation. Seen as a distinct field in management research, knowledge governance represents the coalescing of a number of parallel developments, such as the convergence of organizational economics (transaction cost economics, property rights, and agency theory) and the knowledge-based view in strategic management, as well as the emerging interface between knowledge management and perspectives from organization theory and organizational behaviour (Foss, 2007).These developments have emerged from the recognition that organizational structure and mechanisms (within and between firms) have been underemphasized in the knowledgebased view in strategic management and the broader knowledge management approach, respectively, and need much more attention as a subject of research. Knowledge governance research suggests that managers explicitly design organizational structure and governance mechanisms, such as incentives, authority, and information systems to further knowledgebased goals, such as improved knowledge sharing internally or between firms in strategic alliances (e.g., Osterloh and Frey, 2000). Accordingly, knowledge governance research tends to emphasize a rational, design-oriented approach, and is often indebted to the economizing logic of, notably, transaction cost e...
