An investigation into the knowledge creation process within product development teams

This paper reports on the findings from an empirical study of the knowledge creation process within product development teams. Previous writings on knowledge, information, creativity, etc have been dominated by definitional discussions, prescriptive models, and debates about the social basis of knowledge, etc. A large proportion of research has focused on technological means, in particular ICT, to provide the means for sharing information – in the hope to promote knowledge and knowledge creation (see for example AKT – www.aktors.org). The seminal work of Takeuchi & Nonaka (1995) introduced the notion of explicit and implicit knowledge, coupled with the SECI cycle, in which implicit knowledge embodied within an individual is made explicit and socialized into the organization. The investigation reported here develops and applies a new methodology for the investigation of the activities of new product development teams to develop an in-depth understanding of the knowledge creation process. A model of this process is presented and fully described with examples taken from an empirical study.