Deck 14: Strategy As Knowledge: Innovation and Learning

Question 1

Which of the following activities is most likely to involve what Senge (1990) refers to as 'generative learning'?

A) creating a visionary strategy
B) adapting to a changing environment
C) making internal processes more efficient
D) restructuring the organization

Answer 1

creating a visionary strategy

Question 2

Distinguish between 'sustaining technologies' and 'disruptive technologies'.

Answer 2

Christensen (1997) defines sustaining technologies as those technologies which do not change the status quo within an industry to any great extent - sustaining technologies result in improvements to product performance for existing firms. Disruptive technologies are those which take away the leading firm's place because their product is now superceded by the disruptive technology. Industry leaders can sometimes 'drag their heels' in being innovative because they risk short term losses through loss of sales of the 'old' product

Question 3

Why is tacit knowledge a more sound basis for competitive advantage than explicit knowledge?

Answer 3

Tacit knowledge is intuitive and cannot easily be learned from an instruction manual. For example, being a good public speaker, riding a bike, telling a good joke. Explicit knowledge can be written down - for example, how to install a computer game, how to bake a cake. For this reason, tacit knowledge is much harder to copy and is therefore potentially more valuable as a strategic resource. On the other hand, if an organization does not know what tacit knowledge it has, it may not be able to protect it. Tacit knowledge is harder to identify than explicit knowledge

Question 4

What type of learning is required for an organization to undergo transformational change?

Question 5

How can an organization make good use of the output of 'communities of practice'?

Question 6

In the systematic view of organizational knowledge and learning (Morgan, 1997), what is meant by 'requisite variety'?

A) Define no more than is absolutely necessary
B) Internal complexity must match that of the environment
C) Diversified roles in teams
D) Build the whole into the parts

Question 7

In Nonaka and Takeuchi's 'knowledge spiral', what is meant by 'externalization'?

A) Conversion of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge
B) Conversion of explicit knowledge back into tacit knowledge
C) Sharing of individual tacit knowledge throughout the organization
D) Sharing of individual explicit knowledge throughout the organization

Question 8

In relation to the value-web, which term is the odd one out?

A) Corporate glue
B) Collective knowledge
C) Knowledge architecture
D) Activity sets

Question 9

Which large company considers innovation to derive from "seven habits"?

A) Dyson
B) Google
C) 3M
D) Apple

Question 10

What is meant by the term 'dominant design'?

A) The best design in the industry
B) The most innovative design in the industry
C) The design that the industry settles around
D) The design that matches with core competences

Question 11

Learning can occur within groups of individuals in organizations. This form of learning isn't necessarily part of the formal organization. What are these groups called?

A) Quality circles
B) Social capital
C) Communities of learning
D) Communities of practice

Question 12

Organizational learning has been likened to a form of music. What type of music has been used as a metaphor for organizational learning by Gioia (1998)?

A) Classical
B) Jazz
C) Folk
D) Rap

Question 13

An organization which is able to create, acquire and transfer knowledge and to change its behaviour to reflect new knowledge (Garvin, 1993) is called

A) A value web
B) A learning organization
C) A knowledge creating organization
D) An adaptive organization

Question 14

What is meant by 'double-loop learning' (Argyris and Schon, 1987)?

A) Learning that challenges existing cultural norms
B) Complex learning
C) Learning that builds on existing routines
D) Surface learning

Question 15

In McGee's 'knowledge web' (2003), what holds everything together?

A) Explicit knowledge
B) Corporate glue
C) Activity sets
D) Objectifiable knowledge

Question 16

McGee suggests that a knowledge based view of strategy can be built on three interelated elements; these are

A) Explicit knowledge, collective knowledge, strategic knowledge
B) Tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge, collective knowledge
C) Specific knowledge, organizational knowledge, knowledge web
D) Specific knowledge, collective knowledge, corporate glue

Question 17

Dussage et al (1996) distinguish between two types of innovation. These are incremental and

A) disruptive
B) radical
C) emergent
D) continuous

Question 18

'Value innovation' (Kim and Mauborgne, 1999) can be defined as

A) A new way of satisfying the customer using existing knowledge and technology
B) A collaborative strategy that combines the knowledge and technology of a network of firms
C) A radical technological breakthrough that changes the rules of the game
D) An imitation strategy that is performed at a lower cost than competitors

Question 19

Schumpeter (1934) views knowledge as

A) human capital
B) core competences
C) assets
D) innovation

Question 20

It is argued that monopolistic firms don't have an incentive to innovate because of the problem of cannabilization. This is known as

A) The replacement effect
B) The efficiency effect
C) The opportunity cost effect
D) The sunk costs effect

Question 21

In the Knowledge Based View, the emphasis is on

A) Learning
B) The individual
C) The firm
D) Stakeholders

Question 22

Knowledge which is difficult to write down is called

A) Explicit knowledge
B) Tacit knowledge
C) Codified knowledge
D) Objectified knowledge

Question 23

According to Spender (1996) which form of knowledge is the most strategically significant?

A) Conscious
B) Objectified
C) Automatic
D) Collective

Question 24

Nonaka and Takeuchi developed a framework for understanding the mechanism through which tacit and explicit knowledge is converted and transferred. The framework is known as

A) The knowledge ladder
B) The knowledge spiral
C) The knowledge wheel
D) The knowledge cycle