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Social Innovation pp 57–64Cite as

Knowledge Creation and Transfer Effects on Decision Making

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Part of the book series: CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance ((CSEG))

Abstract

Our economy has been moving towards an Information Age that relies upon intangible assets utilization that has not been fully captured in the financial statements of organizations. Between 1978 and the present, the non-book or intangible assets value of all companies rose approximately 70 % of market value (Rodgers, J Intellect Cap 8:205–215, 2007). Hence, today tangible asset value for companies in general reflects less than 30 % of market value. In this information/knowledge dominated environment, evidence on the employment of intangible or knowledge assets is becoming quite apparent. With the move of sophisticated economies from a resource-based to a knowledge-based production, many national governments have progressively more recognized “knowledge” and “innovation” as momentous driving forces of economic growth, social development, and job creation. In this context the elevation of ‘knowledge transfer’ has increasingly become a theme of public and economic policy. Our economy has been moving towards an Information Age that relies upon intangible assets utilization that has not been fully captured in the financial statements of organizations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There are zero marginal costs of further utilization of knowledge because it is not worn down as it is used in more value creating activities in organizations.

  2. 2.

    However, the origins of the problem can be traced to the early part of the twentieth century. For example, Paton (1922) stated, “In the business enterprise, a well organized and loyal personnel may be a more important asset than a stock of merchandise…. at present, there seems to be no way of measuring such factors in terms of the dollar; hence, they cannot be recognized as specific economic assets. But let us, accordingly, admit the serious limitation of the conventional balance sheet as a statement of financial condition” (pages 486–487).

  3. 3.

    Polanyi clarified the notion of tacit knowledge with the following: “You can identify one face out of thousands, but it is nearly impossible to give an adequate description of this face to another person, so that she is able to identify the face” (1966: 4).

  4. 4.

    Alavi and Leidner (2001) support the notion that information is converted to knowledge once it is processed in the minds of individuals. Further, knowledge becomes information once it is articulated and presented in the form of text, graphics words, or other symbolic forms. In some of the management literature, data is considered as facts and information is processed, interpreted data. Finally, knowledge can be viewed as personalized information.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hull, Hull, UK

    Waymond Rodgers

  2. University of Texas, El Paso, USA

    Waymond Rodgers

  3. Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden

    Arne Söderbom

Authors
  1. Waymond Rodgers
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  2. Arne Söderbom
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Correspondence to Waymond Rodgers .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Intel Corp., Dornacher Str. 1, Feldkirchen, 85622, Bayern, Germany

    Thomas Osburg

  2. Centre for Humane Market Economy, Schlossallee 9, Puch, 5412, Austria

    René Schmidpeter

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Rodgers, W., Söderbom, A. (2013). Knowledge Creation and Transfer Effects on Decision Making. In: Osburg, T., Schmidpeter, R. (eds) Social Innovation. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36540-9_5

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