Constitutive Roles Of External And Internal Information Systems For Effective Interorganizational Knowledge Transfer: A Dyadic Approach

In this paper, we attempt to investigate the constitutive roles of external and internal information systems for interorganizational knowledge transfer which is compassed by the knowledge movement from a source firm and knowledge receipt by a recipient firm. We take a dyadic approach to examine how the interorganizational systems (IOS) and the internal organizational memory information systems (OMIS) enhance the knowledge transfer in a source-recipient dyad. On the one hand, the interorganizational systems initiated by the source firm constitute its social capital that supplies motives for the source firm to send knowledge to the partners, thus activating knowledge movement. On the other hand, the internal organizational memory systems of the recipient constitute its potential absorptive capacity and therefore determine the degree of knowledge receipt. Thus, IOS and OMIS jointly contribute to the effectiveness of interorganizational knowledge transfer with the interventions of the source firm’s social capital and the recipient firm’s potential absorptive capacity, respectively. Implications of this research will be salient to interorganizational relationship management and knowledge management.