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Chan, P W, Grantham, A, Kaplinsky, R, Mynors, D, Mohamed, S, Walsh, K and Coles, R (2006) A taxonomy of knowledge leakage: some early developments. In: Boyd, D (Ed.), Proceedings 22nd Annual ARCOM Conference, 4-6 September 2006 Birmingham, UK. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, Vol. 2, 851–61.

  • Type: Conference Proceedings
  • Keywords: competitiveness; knowledge leakage; productivity; taxonomy
  • ISBN/ISSN: 0 9552390 0 1
  • URL: http://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/ar2006-0851-0861_Chan_et_al.pdf
  • Abstract:
    The shift towards more knowledge-intensive work in the UK and growing trends of globalisation and outsourcing to other countries necessitates a rethink of the role of knowledge in practice. The UK also lags behind such developed economies as the USA and mainland Europe in terms of its productivity. This research represents a multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral, UK government-funded project attempting to dissect the nature of knowledge and its impacts on the UK productivity gap. The central tenet is that knowledge flows between and within firms can have both positive and negative ramifications on the firm's productivity. The overarching research aims to develop a framework to explain how these knowledge flows bear consequences to a firm's long-term competitiveness and productivity, which should enable practitioners to map out, and optimise, their knowledge flows. This paper reports on the initial phase of the research, comprising a desk-top literature survey and a series of exploratory interviews with senior managers across a range of sectors covering both construction and manufacturing. Early findings show that knowledge leakage occurs through dynamic interactions between organisations and their suppliers, customers, competitors, non-competitive collaborators and human resources.