Abandoned knowledge has huge potential for new discoveries

Recombining abandoned knowledge can lead to valuable inventions. Frequent evaluation of existing knowledge components is definitely worthwhile. This is the conclusion of PhD student Holmer Kok. In addition, he shows that not all organizations benefit from working with other companies, despite existing research claiming the opposite. Kok will be awarded a PhD by the University of Groningen on 22 March. His thesis includes important new insights into the possibilities of stimulating the creation of valuable new inventions.

The value of combining knowledge with other future knowledge components cannot be predicted before that new knowledge is created. In addition, the combination value of the components can change considerably over time when knowledge is reused.

The usability of the individual components

When entering into strategic research and development alliances, it is important to investigate the usability of the individual components in the knowledge pool of the intended partners, concludes Kok, instead of unilaterally focusing on aggregated attributes of the knowledge pool such as size or diversity. Contrary to previous research, which often assumed quite a direct relationship between the knowledge input of the partners and the knowledge output of the individual organization, Kok concludes that organizations need specific capacities for combining knowledge to benefit from such partnerships.

Recommendations

Kok also developed recommendations for companies. He points out that it is important to share information about new inventions with other inventors swiftly and accurately, to simplify their recombination processes. Alliances can play a decisive role in identifying new sources of component knowledge and developing high-quality technological solutions within organizations.

To make valuable new discoveries, it is also important to implement adequate strategies for resource management. Kok discovered that knowledge components that remain unused for lengthy periods can be surprisingly valuable in knowledge recombination. He is encouraging organizations to evaluate their knowledge pools on a regular basis so that these components can be rediscovered, and possibly used to realize important technological inventions. Past experience with building new inventions must be properly monitored, says Kok, so that this experience can be used to improve subsequent knowledge recombination.

More information

• Contact: Holmer Kok

________________________________________________
> More news from the Faculty of Economics and Business
> FEB experts in the media