thesis_Daniela Noethen_print final - Jacobs University

valuable addition to the existing literature, and would help clarify the picture of predictors of
knowledge transfer. Furthermore, intergenerational knowledge transfer seems to be a
promising construct for further research with many open questions concerning its divergence
from general knowledge transfer (e.g., with respect to predictors), and the opportunities of
positive outcomes as well as challenges it might present. But with respect to practical
relevance, and the main research question of this dissertation was born out of a very practical
problem, the most interesting and most pressing question is, in my opinion, the one
concerning the impact of knowledge transfer on knowledge loss, or, framed more broadly, the
influence of different prevention strategies on actual knowledge loss.
As already mentioned in section 5.3.3., one of the major challenges for investigations to
this end is the measurement of knowledge loss. Directly measuring knowledge loss is rather
complicated, as this builds on measuring a change in the knowledge base, for example, of a
team. And measuring changes in the knowledge of a unit is very challenging, as it entails
various problems, e.g., because parts of knowledge are tacit and cannot be captured in verbal
assessments (Argote & Ingram, 2000). Thus, a direct measurement of knowledge loss would
possibly necessitate an entirely new and creative approach, potentially combining different
measurement techniques. Instead, researchers might rather try to capture knowledge loss
indirectly via its effects on team processes, productivity, innovation, creativity, etc. To do so,
researchers could, for example, build on work on turnover: there is quite a large body of
literature on consequence of turnover, for example, the turnover of indispensable employees
(Starke, Dyck, & Mauws, 2003). A recent attempt at measuring the effects of knowledge loss
has been presented by Massingham (2008), who tried to capture effects on human capital,
social capital, structural capital, and relational capital. For a direct, but even more so for an
indirect measurement of knowledge loss, it would furthermore be necessary to investigate a
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