Technological innovation and knowledge creation: A study of the enabling conditions and processes of knowledge creation in collaborative R&D projects

Knowledge creation and knowledge management is recognized to be of paramount importance to the competitive advantage of organizations in modern economics. This research empirically investigates the creation of new technical knowledge. It extends Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) organizational knowledge creation theory into the realm of inter-organizational collaborative R&D projects. The research questions asked are: ‘How is new knowledge created and transformed into successful technological innovation in the setting of a collaborative R&D project?’ And, ‘What are the significant factors that management can utilize to manage successful knowledge creation?’ A multi-method approach used quantitative and qualitative data from the Canadian consortium, PRECARN. PRECARN projects are competitively awarded and partially government-funded R&D projects initiated with the intention to develop intelligent systems. Project participants included firms, universities and public laboratories.; Six case studies of collaborative R&D projects were conducted and compared with one another to determine overall patterns in the management of the projects towards technological innovation. A survey of the PRECARN project population was also conducted to examine the relationship of factors to successful knowledge creation. Using a quasi-natural experimental design, twenty-one projects were separated into high, medium and low knowledge creation clusters and the high and low groups then compared.; The results indicate that intention and requisite variety are highly associated with successful knowledge creation in collaborative R&D projects. Specifically, projects in which goals were highly specific and where management paid greater attention to environmental factors had greater levels of knowledge creation. This had positive effects on commercial success, such that high knowledge creation projects were also associated with successful commercialization. Contrary to existing theory, creative tension, redundancy and autonomy were not significant positive factors.; The research confirms that the management of knowledge creation in inter-organizational settings is different than in pure organizational settings. This leads to the conclusion that a robust organizational knowledge creation theory is contingent on the specific setting. Various theoretical and managerial implications are discussed regarding the successful management of collaborative R&D projects.