The Dynamic of Knowledge Creation in Joint Industry-Academia Research Projects: Return from Recent Action-Research Experiences in the Domain of Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Abstract

The chapter focuses on knowledge processes in joint industry-academia research projects. Our experience of knowledge creation in joint industry-academia research projects in the domain of logistics and supply chain management (SCM) has led us to deepen the study of industry-academia interactions more specially the knowledge processes at work in such projects. With this perspective, we adopted an action research approach to launch and conduct two research projects in collaboration with a global manufacturing company. The chapter reviews the knowledge management (KM) literature on knowledge processes, presents the action research approach, and reports the results from the two action-research joint industry-academia research projects with knowledge creation objectives in logistics and SCM. The analysis of the projects reveals that the knowledge creation dynamic results from three intertwined, interactive, and iterative processes: knowledge transfer, knowledge sharing and knowledge generation. This outlines a framework of industry-academia knowledge processes dynamic. The analysis also underlines factors influencing the dynamic, among them action-research methodological choices and tactics. The chapter concludes on the value of action research to boost knowledge creation in joint industry-academia research projects and questions adopting a KM approach in this type of projects that could be part of the KM strategies of partners.