Corporate Resource And Institutionalization Characteristics, Knowledge Management Activities, And R&D Teams’Performance

Many previous studies of knowledge management have been based on the resource-based theory of the firm. Institutionalization, however, is necessary in order for knowledge management to be successful. In that sense, knowledge management needs to be studied from the viewpoint of institutionalization theory. In addition, R&D teams are major groups to create and share knowledge in corporations. There exists, nevertheless, very little research on the knowledge management and performance of R&D teams based on the institutionalization theory as well as the resource-based theory. Thus, based on Choe and Shin’s (2003) model, this study generated hypotheses about the effects of the resource and institutionalization characteristics on knowledge creation and sharing and the effects of these knowledge management activities on inside and outside team performance. To analyze the fitness of the model and to test the hypotheses, this study collected data from 281 R&D teams of 89 Korean companies through a questionnaire survey and conducted the covariance structure analysis and the path analysis utilizing the LISREL statistical program. As results, the model was fitted and all the hypotheses were accepted. In detail, resource and institutionalization characteristics significantly and positively affected knowledge creation and sharing activities which, in turn, had positive and significant impacts on both inside and outside team performance. Specifically, among the resource characteristics, task multifunction, information technology, and knowledge management strategy tend to strongly affect knowledge creation, while information technology tends to affect knowledge sharing. Among the institutionalization characteristics, the utilization of knowledge management system tends to contribute to knowledge creation significantly, whereas the establishment of knowledge management reward system with the utilization of knowledge management system tends to strongly affect knowledge sharing. Furthermore, such knowledge management activities as knowledge creation and sharing tend to increase the performance of outside as well as inside R&D teams.