Knowledge management in production networks: classification of knowledge reuse techniques

Many studies in the field of knowledge management indicate that enterprises and organizations establishing systematic sharing, transfer and reuse of knowledge can expect substantial benefits. Although sharing and transfer of knowledge requires a way to transfer or capture knowledge, not much work has been spent in investigating what kinds of reuse techniques are used in organizations. Starting from a classification of approaches to knowledge reuse, this paper investigates the state of knowledge reuse in production networks with a specific focus on networks of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The aim of the paper is twofold: for production networks, the intention is to investigate which kind of reusable knowledge, in terms of the classification developed, is most relevant for such networks; for the approach to the classification of knowledge reuse techniques, the aim is to further refine the approach and validate it in the field of production network research. The main contributions of this paper are (1) an analysis of reuse situations in SME networks, (2) evaluation of the proposed approach to the knowledge reuse classification for use in the reuse situations and (3) further refinement and validation of the classification approach.