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Organizational Slack and Knowledge Creation in Product Development Projects: The Role of Project Deliverables
Author(s) -
Richtnér Anders,
Åhlström Pär
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
creativity and innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.148
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1467-8691
pISSN - 0963-1690
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8691.2010.00576.x
Subject(s) - operationalization , deliverable , new product development , tacit knowledge , knowledge creation , explicit knowledge , knowledge management , organizational learning , business , product (mathematics) , knowledge value chain , process management , computer science , marketing , management , economics , geometry , mathematics , downstream (manufacturing) , philosophy , epistemology
Our concern is with how changes in organizational slack affect knowledge creation in product development projects. We operationalize a change in organizational slack as changed possibilities to depart from project deliverables in NPD projects. Through case research in high velocity industries we identify the effect a change in organizational slack has on knowledge creation processes inside product development projects. In particular we highlight the effects on tacit and explicit knowledge. More specifically we find that reduced slack creates a focus on explicit knowledge rather than tacit knowledge, which may reduce the ability to create knowledge creation and ultimately to innovate.