[8] 2002 e-business-strategies-for-virtual-organizations

Developing knowledge-based strategies for a virtual organization
Figure 7.1
Framework for
knowledge strategy
(adapted from Zack
1999)
has on share trading). Internal knowledge always arises when a
firm knows its business – and the fewer competitors it has in its
area, the more rare and hence valuable is its knowledge of how
its business works and so on. This must certainly be given a
priority of use – to ignore it is to discard assets that, although
valuable, have cost relatively little to acquire as they develop or
evolve in the normal course of business. In today’s competitive
markets, however, most positions of market dominance attract
intense attention and competition, so this is not a common
occurrence.
Where firms collaborate closely, or virtual organizations form to
bind ‘several as one’ for advantage, exploitation of external
knowledge can take place through the value chain network to
create knowledge advantage within the group situation. This
can be further extended along the supply chain to capture
knowledge from environments. These typically might include
potential and actual customers who, to a greater or lesser extent,
do or can be persuaded to share information and knowledge for
mutual benefit. Commonly used ways of achieving this are
becoming ever more common and include user groups, joint
ventures, beta-testing, websites, electronic mail, toll-free numbers,
customer care centres, customer advisory boards, conferences
and even social gatherings.
Combining the knowledge exploitation versus exploration
orientation of the organization with its internally versus
externally acquired orientation towards knowledge strategy
gives a framework for the knowledge-based virtual organization
as shown in Figure 7.1.
Exploration and exploitation typically occur in different parts of
the organization and are often separated temporally (by time)
and culturally as well as organizationally. Balancing these
requires a knowledge culture, transfer and integration capability
Unbounded
External
Internal
Conservative
Aggressive
Exploiter Explorer Innovator
Virtual
network
Traditional
organization
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