'Something you cannot easily copy and therefore it must be protected. Valuable knowledge is often only valuable to those who know how to use it and therefore emphasis is often placed on people within the firm and their ability to interpret the data effectively. It therefore often comes back to the people - knowledge is only valuable if it is interpreted and reflected upon by the right people'.
'Based on our company experiences of strategic alliances, valuable knowledge exchanges are those where both firms are open and honest about what it is they would like to achieve. Once you create this openness you then allow for valuable exchange to take place which moves away from the superficial level alone',
'Tricky. Valuable knowledge in itself is a subjective term as what is valuable to one firm may not be valuable to another. Clear conversations therefore have to take place'.
The above responses paint a picture of valuable knowledge and provide an interesting insight into how those firms who have experienced a strategic alliance view valuable knowledge and the concept of knowledge in itself. The themes, which emerge from these responses, lend themselves to the importance of people, which relates back to the need for employees to have individual agency to learn and interpret knowledge. Valuable knowledge is therefore only actionable with employees within the organisation. This is therefore how individual learning processes translate to the wider, macro organisational setting. Attention must also be directed towards the theme emerging relating to the protection of data if its valuable, which relates to the paradox introduced in the literature review. On the one hand, organisations have knowledge, which they want to protect and yet on the other have to be willing to in some way share this knowledge if they are to receive anything in return.
Open-Ended Question 2 'To what extent do you think it is possible to facilitate knowledge transfers?'
The second question was asked in order to understand the ways in which knowledge can be transferred. This question was put forward to participants in order to understand what is needed for positive knowledge transfers to take place. As in the first question, a number of interesting comments were made:
'Support from management and a commitment to overall learning, this has to be across both firms'.
'Honesty and openness from both firms at the outset of the alliance in order to discuss what is needed and how the two firms can complement each other. This may be easy at times and more difficult at others. Such conversations however need to take place in order to ensure that it is possible to move towards a commitment to overall learning. This honesty enables a starting foundation upon which knowledge can be transferred. A difficulty does however arise with regards to the often-natural want to protect knowledge whilst getting knowledge from others'.
'Open conversations, honesty, trust and something to share in the first instance'.
'Time and trust - we regularly refer to these as the two t's of success'.
The answers above reflect a number of ways in which knowledge transfers can be facilitated. One such way often relates to the need to have an open culture and for knowledge to be easily transferred across cultures and people. Interestingly, emphasis is placed on trust and time and this needs to be fostered firm wide. One key theme that emerged was the need to create an open culture where both parties are open and honest to facilitate knowledge transfers.
Open Ended Question 3 'What challenges have you faced with regards to knowledge transfers in strategic alliances?'
A number of challenges were discussed which have been used to formulate the discussion in the next chapter. Participants were open to discussing challenges and many of them prov
