Rejuventing an aging horse: Knowledge transfer theories in organization studies and the need for retheorizing the field
Kjell Arne Røvik, Professor, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
This lecture explores the complexities of knowledge transfer across organizations, emphasizing its critical role in organizational success and the challenges it faces. Four decades of research has focused on barriers and enablers such as organizational structure, absorptive capacity, social networks, and geographical, cultural, and institutional distances – hopefully to identify an X-factor with high explanatory power. However, these approaches fail to fully explain variations in knowledge transfer outcomes. Røvik advocates for retheorizing the field – a shift towards a translation theory which views knowledge transfer as acts of translation involving de-contextualization and contextualization. He introduces three translation modes—reproducing, modifying, and radical—each with appurtenant translation rules, and highlights the importance of translators' performance and translation competence in determining outcomes. Case studies illustrate how translation modes and rules influence success or failure, and thus, may explain variations in knowledge transfer outcomes.
Kjell Arne Røvik is a professor at UIT The Arctic University of Norway. His research focuses on the role of theory in organizational analysis, knowledge transfer across organizational borders – and the circulation and implementation of popular management ideas. His Score Lecture on Organization draws especially on one of his recent books; A Translation Theory of Knowledge Transfer – Learning across organizational borders (2023), Oxford university press.
