'Knowledge management practices' and path-dependency in innovation

摘要

The preceding discussion demonstrates that knowledge management practices can vary form firm to firm in their number, detail, and mode of imple- mentation. It also demonstrates that the 'menu' of available KMPs is in principle growing, and that firms can, if they chose, avail themselves of more and more sophisticated knowledge management op- tions, even to the point of having knowledge man- agement 'strategies'. We have also seen that by focusing on KMPs rather than on the technology itself or on the actual forms of knowledge, we have penetrated quite deeply into both the current forms of path -dependence in a firm and the KMPs which are capable in principle of changing the constraints on innovation, and thus modifying the path-dependence of firm.