Proceedings of EIASM The 14th International Product Development Management Conference (IPDMC)

The objective of the present study is to investigate how different types of knowledge,generated in product development in an alliance context, are integrated to the individualfirm. Knowledge is categorized as thematic knowledge, process knowledge, and generalknowledge. Knowledge sharing is categorized according to level of involvement. Resultsindicate a very high representation of impersonal knowledge sharing (server ordocuments), even if there is a high degree of belief among the respondents that personalmeetings and continuous knowledge sharing would be better. The present study uses acase study approach in three medium sized manufacturing firms. The objective of the present study is to investigate how different types of knowledge,generated in product development in an alliance context, are integrated to the individualfirm. Knowledge is categorized as thematic knowledge, process knowledge, and generalknowledge. Knowledge sharing is categorized according to level of involvement. Resultsindicate a very high representation of impersonal knowledge sharing (server ordocuments), even if there is a high degree of belief among the respondents that personalmeetings and continuous knowledge sharing would be better. The present study uses acase study approach in three medium sized manufacturing firms.