Tacit and Ambiguous Resources as Sources of Competitive Advantage

208 Pages·2003·0.67 MB·English

by  Veronique Ambrosini

Tacit and Ambiguous
Resources as Sources of
Competitive Advantage
Véronique Ambrosini
Tacit and Ambiguous Resources as Sources of
Competitive Advantage
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Tacit and Ambiguous Resources
as Sources of Competitive
Advantage
Véronique Ambrosini
© Véronique Ambrosini 2003
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication
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The author has asserted her right to be identified as
the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2003 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
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ISBN 1–4039–0575–4
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Ambrosini, Véronique.
Tacit and ambiguous resources as sources of competitive
advantage/ VéroniqueAmbrosini.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1–4039–0575–4 (cloth)
1. Intangible property—Management. 2. Tacit knowledge. 3. Ambiguity.
4. Knowledge management. 5. Organisational learning. 6. Strategic
planning. I. Title.
HD53.A43 2003
658.4(cid:2)038—dc21 2003043609
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne
Contents
List of Figures and Tables ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction and Overview xiii
PART I LITERATURE REVIEW
1 The Resource-Based View of the Firm 3
Introduction 3
Key principles 4
What is a resource? 4
Characteristics of a resource 4
2 Tacit Knowledge 9
Tacit knowledge and the resource-based literature 9
Objective knowledge 9
Tacit knowledge as defined in resource-based theory 10
Tacit knowledge as a resource 11
Polanyi on tacit knowledge 12
Nelson and Winter’s evolutionary theory of
economic change 13
Organisational culture 14
Culture 14
Theories in use 16
Occupational psychology 16
Cognitive psychology 17
Knowledge and memory 18
Expert knowledge 18
Expert knowledge and skill acquisition 20
Intuition 21
Teachers’ knowledge 21
Summary of the tacit knowledge literature 22
3 Organisational Knowledge 24
The ‘individualistic or reductionist’ thesis 24
The ‘group mind’ thesis 25
The ‘individual–group relation’ thesis 25
Organisational knowledge and organisational routines 26
v
vi Contents
PART II RESEARCH TERMINOLOGY
4 Working Definitions 31
Tacit skills 32
Tacit routines 33
Tacit routines and tacit skills 35
Defining ‘tacit’ 35
PART III THE RESEARCH PROJECT: METHODOLOGY
5 Researching Tacit Activities: Methodology Suggested
by the Literature 39
Tacit knowledge as a valuable resource 39
Philosophical perspectives 40
Possible research strategies 41
Cognitive maps 43
Causal mapping 43
Group mapping 44
6 Revealing Tacit Routines as a Source of Organisational Success:
TheProcess 46
Starting the causal map 46
Self-Q 47
Interviews: storytelling and metaphors 48
Storytelling 48
Metaphors 49
Constructing the map 50
The reliability and validity of causal maps 51
Validity 51
Reliability 52
Observation 53
Conclusion 54
PART IV THE RESEARCH PROJECT: INVESTIGATING TACIT
ROUTINES
7 Stage 1: Identifying Organisational Tacit Knowledge as a
ComponentofFirms’ Success 59
The first study: Alpha 59
Background 59
Eliciting tacit activities at Alpha 60
The results 63
Results from the coding 63
Lessons learnt from the results 64
Contents vii
Conclusions 69
Identification of the role of tacit routines in
firm’s success 69
Unmanaged routines 69
Summary 70
8 Stage 2: Methodological Development – Refining
the Research Process 71
Methodological lessons 71
Lessons learnt from the preliminary interviews 71
Lessons learnt from the causal mapping process 72
Beta 73
Gamma 74
Paul 75
Insights into causal mapping 76
A proposal for facilitating the process 78
Conclusion 79
9 Stage 3: Conceptual Development – Beyond Tacit Versus Explicit
Organisational Knowledge 81
Taxonomy 81
Explicit/tacit 82
Known/unknown 82
Managers involved in routines/managers
not involved in routines 82
Link with performance known/link with
performance unknown 83
Managed and unmanaged routines 83
Coding categories 84
Conclusion 85
10 Stage 4a: Exploring Success-Generating Routines 86
Omega 87
Findings of the Omega study 87
Kappa 88
Background 88
Identifying routines at Kappa 89
Results and analysis 92
Discussion 95
Conclusions 98
11 Stage 4b: Exploring Further Success-Generating Routines 100
Background 100
Identifying routines at Delta: the causal mapping session 101
viii Contents
The premapping procedure 101
The mapping process 101
Results and analysis 102
Aggregate results 102
Results and analysis of the maps 104
Discussion 110
Conclusions 113
12 Stage 5: Conclusions Drawn from the Mapping sessions
atKappaandDelta 115
Consolidation 123
Development 124
PART V IMPLICATIONSAND CONCLUSIONS
13 Theoretical Contributions 129
Methodological contributions 129
Defining tacit knowledge as an empirically
researchable concept 129
Methodology for empirically researching tacit routines 130
Theoretical developments 130
Elaboration of the concept 130
Valuable routines 131
Routines and situational factors 135
Towards a model of routines as a source of
organisational success 140
Final comments 143
14 Managerial Implications 145
The managerial relevance of mapping organisational success 145
Eliciting valuable routines 145
Practical benefits 147
The vulnerability of organisational success and the
role of managers 148
Leveraging routines 150
Implications for managerial education and
strategy consulting 151
15 Conclusion 153
Limitations 153
Summary 154
Appendices 156
References 180
Index 192
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
I.1 Tacit knowledge as a source of organisational
success: a route map xiii
2.1 Summary of the tacit knowledge literature 23
4.1 Degrees of tacitness 35
6.1 Researching tacit routines as a component of firms’
success: summary of the proposed method 55
7.1 An elaboration of the concept of tacit routines 66
8.1 Researching tacit routines as a component of firms’
success: summary of the refined research method 80
12.1 Routines at Kappa: ‘taking a brief’ 116
12.2 Routines at Kappa: ‘displaying confidence’ 116
12.3 Routines at Delta: ‘providing reassurance to customers’ 117
12.4 Routines at Delta: ‘a business approach, not an IT
approach’ 117
12.5 Routines at Delta: ‘adapting the sales pitch to
the customer’ 118
12.6 Comparison of the codings for the maps on Phi, ‘Winning
the Sigma contract’ and ‘Going live withSigma’ 119
13.1 Combinations of characteristic and linkage
ambiguity 132
13.2 Basic arguement of the resource-based view 141
13.3 Tacit knowledge is rare, non-imitable,
non-substitutable and valuable 141
13.4 The operationalisation of tacit knowledge or source
of sustainable competitive advantage 141
13.5 Valuable routine 142
13.6 Managerial action and valuable routine 142
13.7 The external environment, managerial action
and valuable routine 143
13.8 A model of organisational routines as a source
of organisational success 144
A3.1 Directors’ accounts of company’s success (1) 162
A3.2 Directors’ accounts of company’s success (2) 163
A3.3 Directors’ accounts of company’s success (3) 164
ix