| Along with the rising of knowledge-based economy in the world, the knowledge management gradually became the theme of enterprise management. The status and function of knowledge in the process of firm growth has been widely realized. As an important link of knowledge management process, the knowledge transfer becomes the essential foundation of many organizations to construct the competitive advantage. The former researches of knowledge transfer went along two basic clues of intra- and inter-organizational units. Although inter-organizational knowledge transfer is the focal point heretofore, more and more scholars have moved their eyes to intra-organizational knowledge transfer recently. It's the key to obtain competitive advantage by properly developing the huge invisible knowledge property inside organization and promoting knowledge transfer between different departments and employees. The knowledge transfer within group is a miniature of intra-organizational transfer. And its achievements not only have the foundation status, but also can affect the transfer performance among different organizations or departments. However, how to improve knowledge transfer within group is still faced with great confusion. This paper attempts to answer two basic questions by taking the enterprise research and development unit as an example. Firstly, how does the technological knowledge within the R&D unit transfer? Secondly, which factors affect the promotion of knowledge transfer performance? And what is their relative influence? Two methods of theoretical analysis and empirical research has been adopted to answer the above two basic questions.The research work mainly included following four aspects. (1)The knowledge transfer process within R&D unit has been revealed through literature review and field interview. And two kinds of typical transfer mechanisms were summed up. (2)The model of influence factors of knowledge transfer performance was constructed from the perspective of knowledge transfer components by taking process concept as the background. And the conceptual model was revised based on large quantity of field interview with about 20 enterprises and 35 employees. (3)The R&D units of information technology industry, medicine chemical industry and traditional manufacturing industry were taken as investigation object. The questionnaire survey was carried out in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui five provinces or cities. 267 questionnaires were distributed to different enterprises, and 127 effectivequestionnaires were received finally. (4)The SPSS 11.5 statistics software was used to analyze the actual condition of knowledge transfer within R&D unit, and to examine the hypotheses been supported or not.After the above research work, the main research conclusions are listed as following.(1) The core of knowledge transfer within R&D unit was to promote knowledge learning and new knowledge creation through knowledge transmission and absorption between members. The knowledge transfer within R&D unit was the results of members' interaction through different ways and paths. The knowledge transfer process was certainly not merely to deliver knowledge, but more importantly to absorb, integrate, and reconstruct knowledge base. The enterprise's R&D unit can be regarded as a knowledge input and output transformation system in the whole. The close relation and frequent interaction constituted the main circuit of knowledge transfer within R&D unit. The knowledge acquisition and sharing was a conversing process between individual knowledge and collective knowledge. Continuous knowledge learning passed through the entire process of knowledge transfer within R&D unit. As the byproduct of knowledge transfer process, the creation of new knowledge has provided essential source and supplement of new knowledge for the knowledge cyclic process.(2) The technological knowledge within R&D unit can be transferred by two kinds of typical mechanisms, which were documents exchange and interpersonal interaction. On the foundation of systematical summarization of relative transfer styles, the path framework of knowledge transfer within R&D unit has been designed by drawing the theoretical model thought of Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995). That was externalization and internalization of technological knowledge of members and externalization/combination and internalization/socialization of R&D unit. The fundamental styles of effective knowledge transfer include document materials, technological reports, database, visit, mentorship, communication, on-the-job training and so on. And all these styles may be refined to documents exchange and interpersonal interaction in the overall. In the practice the R&D unit was primarily taken one kind of knowledge transfer mechanism, and the other as supplement and support.(3) The differences of knowledge transfer among different industry, different R&D intensity, and different knowledge stock R&D units were partially significant. The cognition differences of different tenure were also partially existed. Theexamination results of ANOVA or independent sample t test indicated that the knowledge transfer differences of different industry were only significant on knowledge stock and distant. The significant differences of different R&D intensity were existed in transfer willingness, trust, absorptive capability, stock, systematic knowledge, and transfer performance. The R&D unit with high knowledge stock also has good condition of knowledge transfer expect attributes of knowledge transferred. The significant differences of knowledge transfer for different tenure individuals were only existed in transfer ability and knowledge distance.(4) The direct influence of knowledge transfer performance within R&D unit was come from the knowledge attributes, transfer willingness, transfer ability, trust, knowledge distance, and absorptive capability. And the knowledge transfer mechanism moderated the above influence relations. Among them, the degree of satisfaction of members in R&D unit was influenced by trust, transfer willingness, absorptive capability, and transfer ability. The technological knowledge learning was affected by absorptive capability, trust, transfer willingness, systematic knowledge, and knowledge distance. The absorptive capability, tacitness and system of knowledge, and transfer ability have corresponding promotion or hindrance function. Specially, the transfer performance can be remarkably promoted by matching the knowledge attributes with transfer mechanisms. Other group variables, such as industrial category, R&D intensity and knowledge stock, have also affected the R&D unit's knowledge transfer performance in certain degree.The above research conclusion may provide some beneficial practical implications for knowledge management and organizational learning. Firstly, some positive measures should be taken to drive the intra- organizational knowledge transfer. Secondly, the independent innovation capability can be cultivated by trapping and digging the organization's knowledge resources through knowledge transfer within R&D unit. And some concrete measures were provided, such as building the knowledge innovation network, constructing and maintaining the technological knowledge reservoir, encouraging to set up and to participate in communities of technical knowledge, moderately increasing the R&D expenditures and so on. Thirdly, some countermeasures to promote knowledge transfer performance can be designed from the perspective of knowledge transfer components, which include raising member's knowledge absorptive capability, optimizing R&D unit member's constitution, constructing trust atmosphere, and choosing appropriate knowledge transfer mechanism. Fourthly, the knowledge learning of members shouldestablish the collective achievements concept. Everyone in the R&D unit initiatively works as dual roles of good teacher and student.The innovation ideas mainly concentrated in following three aspects.(1) The process mechanism of knowledge transfer has been revealed by taking the R&D unit as analysis object. Most existed researches are based on four levels or organizational level analysis. However, how to transfer knowledge within R&D unit was still not clear. The transfer process was analyzed from the perspective of knowledge transfer component. Two kinds of knowledge transfer mechanisms were refined based on systematically inspecting on transfer styles within R&D unit.(2) The conceptual model of influence factors of knowledge transfer performance was designed from the perspective of knowledge transfer component. It was different with other study on research object and level for taking the R&D unit as the basic analysis unit. From four aspects of knowledge transfer main body, content, context and media, nine main variables were chosen to construct the conceptual model, which were tacitness, complexity, system, transfer willingness, transfer ability, trust, knowledge distance, absorptive capability, and transfer mechanism.(3) The influence factors of knowledge transfer performance and their relative degree were analyzed by the empirical data from R&D units of three industries and five provinces or cities. The paper took the group as analysis level to explore knowledge transfer question of members as knowledge main carrier. The major influence factors and their relative influence were identified by regression analysis of questionnaire survey data.The research on knowledge transfer question in domestic is still very young. This paper merely carried out some preliminary explorations, and the future research need to continually consummate the knowledge transfer theory system. Some valuable directions can go along inter-unit knowledge transfer, comparison analysis of different units within organization, relationship between intra-unit knowledge transfer and knowledge creation and organization competitive advantage, and so on.
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