Abstract:
The past two decades have seen the emergence of a variety of strategic alliances in an attempt by organizations
to cope with the demands of rapidly changing and complex environments. Initially, reasons for strategic alliances have
been primarily economic or strategic – risk sharing, market penetration, technology transfer or pooling resources. As the
knowledge-based theory of the firm gained prominence, organizations have started realizing that knowledge is a critical
resource for competitive advantage. Organizations have recently started paying more attention to processes that can enable
inter-organizational learning and knowledge transfer. Research conducted so far regarding knowledge transfer between
partners in strategic alliances clearly indicates that the transfer does not happen automatically and has to be managed. It
also shows that managers may not be fully aware of how to facilitate knowledge transfer. The barriers to knowledge
transfer are a complex mixture of issues covering organizational, social and technological factors as well as the nature of
knowledge being shared. A review of the literature indicates that organizations do not seem to utilise tools created in the
knowledge management field that can facilitate knowledge sharing. There is also a feeling among scholars that while organizations
can develop strategies to exploit what they know, it is never possible to know everything that an organization needs
and organizations should also learn how to manage their “ignorance” as well. This paper identifies some questions for
knowledge management scholars and practitioners to carry out research in knowledge transfer and inter-organizational
learning among strategic alliances.
