The objective of this thesis is to examine the acquisition and management processes of the technical knowledge in an R&D project and the conversion processes of acquired technical knowledge in a central research institute of a conglomerate.
This thesis is primarily focused on following research questions.
1) How can we identify the needs of specific technical knowledge in executing a single R&D project?
2) What are the process of acquiring the technical knowledge?
3) As the results of knowledge management in the process of the R&D activity, how much knowledge has been accumulated in an organization?
To address the above questions, this thesis reviewed the related literature, such as the characteristics of knowledge, technical knowledge, knowledge conversion and the promoting factors of knowledge conversion. From the result of literature review, we can postulate that there are two main steps of knowledge acquision and management through the execution of a single R&D project.
First step of R&D project executing is related to the description of what we need. It is composed of finding the uncertainties caused by the target of project, describing the way to remove the uncertaintyness and concluding the technical knowledge needed.
Next step is related to the acquisition of identified technical knowledge. This step is composed of the acquisition and the conversion of that technical knowledge into organizational knowledge.
Based on the review of literature and industry experiences, research framework is generated. Also an in-depth case study on the acquision and the development processes of two technical knowledge development projects are carried out.
The results of the research can be summarized as follows;
First, R&D projects are formulated in the areas where the organizational knowledge is not enough and are carried out to fill up needed organizational knowledge. Therefor R&D projects are expected to reduce identified uncertainties and to contribute new knowledge creation.
Second, the process of technical knowledge acquision can be handled based on Nonaka's SECI(Socialization, Externalization, Combination and Internalization) cycle, even in a single R&D project. It implied that Nonaka's cycle can be a good management tool to be adaptable for each situation.
Lastly, knowledge conversion process could be classified, by the degree of difference and the field of knowledge related, into i) certification, ii) substitution, iii) conversion caused by mutual assistance and iv) conversion caused by the expansion of organizational knowledge.
The study attempts to investigate inside the black box of R&D knowledge creation. It needs more detailed elaboration of research model and data collection and further researches are needed in an extended context.
