Knowledge Cooperation Mechanism

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) proposed that Knowledge Economy be a knowledge-based economy, which directly depends on the production, distribution and application of knowledge. After entering the 21st century, knowledge economy has gradually become the dominant feature of economic development and the traditional model of human knowledge production with a single subject structure has been strongly shocked. This unconventional mode of knowledge production, which is problem-oriented and integrated with multi-disciplinary knowledge has become the new trend. As economic globalization has expanded the scope of enterprise competition, the competing relations between enterprises under the traditional economic circumvent have changed. Companies worldwide are activly establishing partnerships. Studies of scholars from both at home and abroad have shown that the cooperation between companies are gradually characterized by knowledge cooperation. For example, IBM, Motorola, TOSHIBA, Siemens, and many other big cross-international companies are making use of the opportunities brought by global economic integration and actively building a network of knowledge cooperation to accelerate the innovation of enterprise knowledge. Chinese enterprises such as Hier, Lenovo, Changhong, and Founder, ect., have also realized the power of knowledge cooperation and are following suit, and they jointly launched a consortium of innovation of digital products speeding up the spillover of knowledge in this area, increasing the value of scientific knowledge in innovative achievements and promoting the preponderant resources of domestic computers, elect appliances and communications to develop in the direction of 3 Cs.The ongoing extensive cooperation between enterprises and disciplines are unprecedented. This cooperation is not accidental, inevitable. How to choose partners and forms of cooperation so that rapid growths of knowledge can be achieved; how to cross the organizational borders so that knowledge cooperation with outer organizations can be achieved; and how to construct competitive advantages through knowledge cooperation so that long-term development of enterprises can be achieved are all the pressing concerns of enterprises and have practical significance for studding the mechanism of enterprise knowledge cooperation.Enterprise cooperation innovation is discussed from the perspective of knowledge cooperation in this article. A systematic research on the mechanism of enterprise knowledge cooperation is undertaken using multi-disciplinary theories and methods of management, economics, sociology, psychology and information systems. The mechanism of knowledge cooperation is to be realized during the process of knowledge cooperation, therefore, based on how to achieve knowledge cooperation, the concept of knowledge cooperation is gradually and thoroughly introduced. Major achievements are as follows:(1)Research on knowledge cooperation and the pattern of knowledge cooperation: Knowledge cooperation is the process of realizing economic benefits and obtaining competition advantages between enterprises with the feature of being problems-oriented, consummers-centerded and out of knowledge strategies. It is aiming at forming stake holders, facilitating the cross-organizational activities of enterprises in the value chain while using multi-disciplinary pattern of knowledge production, and via knowledge fusion in the external value chain. The modes of knowledge cooperation can be divided as knowledge gathering, knowledge supply chain and knowledge grafting. Different effects arising from various patterns of knowledge cooperation help realize restructuring external value chain. Knowledge gathering is caused by the accumulation and intersection of knowledge and focuses on the process, operating environment and knowledge innovation of knowledge gathering. Knowledge supply chain is formed by the push-pull effect within knowledge, and it studies the operating environment, new knowledge and the trust establishment between enterprises. Knowledge grafting comes into being as the complementary effect of knowledge gap within knowledge. It studies the cooperation principle, operating environment as well as risk control.(2)Research on the innovative theories of enterprise knowledge cooperation. According to the theory of Nonaka about innovation of enterprise knowledge, a new theory of enterprise knowledge cooperation is tentatively established based on the procedures, the KC-SECI model and the organizing and system of knowledge cooperation. Compared with the SECI model within the organization, the KC-SECI model of enterprise knowledge cooperation is,on the one hand, the extension of knowledge innovation, and, on the other hand, two phases of knowledge innovation process among different organizations, namely the process of knowledge spillover and knowledge creating within enterprises.(3)Research on the mechanism of knowledge cooperative. According to the procedure of the cooperation, knowledge cooperative mechanism is divided into three types:dynamisms, operating and feedback, and the model of knowledge cooperative mechanism is built based on the exogenous and endogenous forces and the stimulation of knowledge cooperation value. The operational mechanism of knowledge cooperation is studied from the following three aspects,i.e., effect steming from knowledge cooperation and its operational environment as well as the new knowledge generating. The positive feedback of the knowledge cooperative mechanism results in the change of the game conditions at the beginning of the cooperation, at the same time may cause the instability of cooperation. The negative feedback of the knowledge cooperative mechanism makes the overall cooperation produce competition advantages by means of integrating the external knowledge from the value chain. Consequently, the act of cooperating between corporations is characterized by the fluctuation of cooperation-betrayal-cooperation. The organization type of enterprise cooperation is dependent on the pattern of knowledge cooperation. The partners' knowledge property and their cooperation effect decides the organization type.(4)Research on the value of knowledge cooperation. It describes the composition of enterprise knowledge cooperation value from the perspective of value-driving. The value of knowledge cooperation encompasses two pars. One is the direct economic benefits brought by knowledge cooperation and the other is the enhancement of enterprise competitive advantages. Direct economic benefits come from the contribution of knowledge cooperative pattern to the value elements of enterprise products. The enhancement of competitive advantage lies in that knowledge cooperation enhances enterprises' A ability to commercialize the new knowledge gained from knowledge cooperation via the knowledge integration on the enterprises' external value chain. Knowledge cooperation is only a tool and knowledge sharing, flowing, and learning is only a way. Realizing the value of knowledge cooperation is the goal of knowledge cooperation innovation.