Using corporate universities to facilitate knowledge transfer and achieve competitive advantage: an exploratory model based on media richness and type of knowledge to be transferred

The knowledge literature suggests that transferring knowledge leads to synergistic cost advantages, better implementation of organizational strategies, and competitive advantage. Organizations are implementing corporate universities to aid in knowledge transfer. There is no standardized definition for corporate universities, but rather models that allow organizations to customize them to meet their training needs. Building on recent work of managing the knowledge transfer process (Murray & Peyrefitte, 2007) and on seminal work on media richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1986), the authors propose that the type of knowledge to be transferred, and the appropriate media to transfer that knowledge, determine the most beneficial generation of corporate university to achieve competitive advantage. The article presents a model and propositions concerning relationships between the type of knowledge to be transferred, appropriate media selection, and generation of corporate university to implement. Keywords: Corporate Universities, Knowledge Transfer, Media Richness