Exploring Knowledge Transferring and Conversion in the Fuzzy Front End of Collaborative Innovation Development

6th International Scientific Conference – EMAN 2022 – Economics and Management: How to Cope With Disrupted Times, Ljubljana, Slovenia, March 24, 2022, CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS, published by: Association of Economists and Managers of the Balkans, Belgrade, Serbia; ISBN 978-86-80194-57-8, ISSN 2683-4510

 Abstract:

The research goal is to investigate the specificity of activities of startup entrepreneurial teams that co-develop new product concepts with stakeholders.

We identified a specific pattern of knowledge conversions/transferring through observations of collaborative activities, followed by questionnaires and interviews with members of the entrepreneurial team.

The research pool comprised eleven entrepreneurial teams of 4-6 members each. The predominant objects of conversions and transferring among the entrepreneurial team members and external stakeholders were identified as tacit knowledge types: know-how (what, why), insights, intuition, attitudes, beliefs (as a type of attitudes), and entrepreneurial vision. Types of conver­sions and transferring were the same in all the teams but the application of managerial tools (facilitating means) that allowed transferring/conversions varied. The identified specificity of knowledge processing could be used to optimize those tools/methods by elaborating specific measurable criteria of how efficiently tacit knowledge was transferred and converted.

Keywords:

Entrepreneurial management; New product development; Knowledge transferring; Knowledge conversion

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