Questions for March 27 Frontiers
Here are a few questions to guide our discussion of two
competing metaphors for successful knowledge communication: 1. the
communication metaphor (Szulanski, 1995), and 2. the
knowledge market metaphor (Hansen & Haas, 1997).
- How
might the knowledge market metaphor apply to situations where, instead of
attention, another resource is constrained (e.g. money, imitation effort)?
- What
other forms of knowledge are amenable, or not amenable, to the knowledge
market view? How can it be applied to external sources of knowledge?
- How
does Szulanski’s concept of stickiness apply to the competition model
proposed by Hansen and Haas? What additional insights are gained by
Szulanski’s broader consideration of barriers to knowledge communication?
- Is
the assumption in both papers of knowledge as transferable at zero
marginal cost a reasonable one in practice, and in the authors’ studies?
- In
what ways might the transfer of knowledge be more problematic than
transfers of other information, or market goods?