The open, flexible affordances of pervasive digital technologies have fundamentally altered the nature of organisational innovation. In the extreme, these technologies become platforms for digitally enacted organisational innovation. At its core, innovation is a process of creating and using new ideas and concepts. In the digital realm innovation becomes a process of enacted knowledge creation. This research contributes to a growing discourse on the relationship between innovation and knowledge creation by building and testing a hybrid model of organisational knowledge creation and innovation. Its findings illustrate the utility of using knowledge-based perspectives to investigate organisational innovation and have significant implications for fostering digital innovation in the firm

1. Dr Niamh O Riordan National University of Ireland Galway
Dr Philip O’Reilly University College Cork
Prof. Frederic Adam University College Cork
Saturday, June 8th 2013

2.  Motivation
 Evolving perspectives in the literature
 Research Approach
 Findings
 Conclusion

3. It is well established that…
Knowledge is a key organisational resource
and a core performance driver
∴The literature on storing, capturing and
retrieving knowledge (information?) is mature
However…
We know a lot less about how knowledge is created in the
first place
and we’ve only just started to think about IS/IT
as generative platforms
Individuals’
generative capacity:
their “ability to
produce something
ingenious or at least
new in a particular
context”

5.  Initial theory building using propositions
1. Knowledge exists in declarative and procedural forms
2. Knowledge is created when changes take place in mental frameworks
3. Knowledge creation occurs through experience and ongoing social processes
4. Knowledge creation is shaped by one’s needs and initial mental frameworks
5. Knowledge creation affects one’s capacity for action
Innovation and knowledge creation are intertwined such that innovations are
conceived and enacted at that point in the knowledge creation process where
existing knowledge structures are changed
 Multiple case studies investigating 2 questions
1. If knowledge creation is shaped by initial stocks of knowledge, then is it possible to
(empirically) classify initial knowledge stocks?
2. If knowledge creation is triggered by experiences, then are there particular kinds of
experience that are more likely to lead to knowledge creation than others (taking
into account the importance of prior knowledge)?
6 case studies of innovative VW projects

9. Knowledgecreation
process
Recreates or reconstructs
Existing knowledge frameworks:
Enables and shapes the
Opportunistic co-operation
Purposeful self-reliance
Opportunistic self-reliance
Purposeful co-operation
New
experiences
and new
information
TIME
TIME

10.  Core contributions:
◦ Addresses a gap in research on knowledge creation
and its relationship with innovation
◦ Also contributes to our understanding of emerging
technologies as generative platforms
◦ Provides a starting point for managers wishing to
better utilise organisational knowledge
 Limitations:
◦ Case studies are used to illustrate the utility of the
framework but there are issues associated with the
generalisability of the findings
◦ The analysis operates at the level of the individual

11. 1. Knowledge exists in the minds of individuals
To understand how knowledge is created, we must
concentrate on how individuals’ mental structures
are changed over time
2. Knowledge exists in declarative and procedural
forms
It is time to look beyond SECI and the (flawed) tacit /
explicit classification
3. Knowledge is created when existing mental
structures change
We cannot afford to ignore existing or prior
knowledge

12. Niamh O Riordan
niamh.oriordan@nuigalway.ie
www.niamhoriordan.com
ie.linkedin.com/in/niamhoriordan/