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Knowledge systematisation, reconfiguration and the organisation of firms and industry: The case of design

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  • D’Ippolito, Beatrice
  • Miozzo, Marcela
  • Consoli, Davide

Abstract

The paper explores two pathways that are crucial for making knowledge economically useful – knowledge systematisation and knowledge reconfiguration – and analyses how their interplay enables the emergence of a new business function or activity. Knowledge systematisation is the abstraction and diffusion of operative principles to the effect of expanding to broader remits practices that had been initially conceived for a narrow purpose. Knowledge reconfiguration involves the conversion and formalisation of these novel practices within existing firm and industry organisation. Using the design activity as a lens, and drawing on primary and secondary interviews and archival data on the home furnishing sectors in Italy, our case study articulates the processes that facilitate the abstraction of general rules from novel practices and the changes that are necessary, both within firm and industry organisation, to foster their diffusion.

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  • D’Ippolito, Beatrice & Miozzo, Marcela & Consoli, Davide, 2014. "Knowledge systematisation, reconfiguration and the organisation of firms and industry: The case of design," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(8), pages 1334-1352.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:43:y:2014:i:8:p:1334-1352
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2014.03.013
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    1. D’Ippolito, Beatrice & Miozzo, Marcela & Consoli, Davide, 2014. "Knowledge systematisation, reconfiguration and the organisation of firms and industry: The case of design," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(8), pages 1334-1352.
    2. Xinwei Ye & Lei Ma & Junwen Feng & Yang Cheng & Zheng Liu, 2018. "Impact of Technology Habitual Domain on Ambidextrous Innovation: Case Study of a Chinese High-Tech Enterprise," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-21, December.
    3. Roper, Stephen & Micheli, Pietro & Love, James H. & Vahter, Priit, 2016. "The roles and effectiveness of design in new product development: A study of Irish manufacturers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 319-329.
    4. Ying Wang & Fu Jia & Tobias Schoenherr & Yu Gong, 2018. "Supply Chain-Based Business Model Innovation: The Case of a Cross-Border E-Commerce Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-23, November.
    5. Christine Benna Skytt-Larsen & Lars Winther, 2015. "Knowledge Production, Urban Locations and the Importance of Local Networks," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(9), pages 1895-1917, September.
    6. Nuno Oliveira & Davide Secchi, 2023. "Theory Building, Case Dependence, and Researchers’ Bounded Rationality: An Illustration From Studies of Innovation Diffusion," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 52(2), pages 993-1042, May.
    7. Kokshagina, Olga & Gillier, Thomas & Cogez, Patrick & Le Masson, Pascal & Weil, Benoit, 2017. "Using innovation contests to promote the development of generic technologies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 152-164.
    8. Ardito, Lorenzo & Ferraris, Alberto & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio & Bresciani, Stefano & Del Giudice, Manlio, 2019. "The role of universities in the knowledge management of smart city projects," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 312-321.
    9. D’Ippolito, Beatrice & Rüling, Charles-Clemens, 2019. "Research collaboration in Large Scale Research Infrastructures: Collaboration types and policy implications," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1282-1296.
    10. Corradini, Carlo & D'Ippolito, Beatrice, 2022. "Persistence and learning effects in design innovation: Evidence from panel data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(2).

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