The purposes of this study are to identify salient characteristics of knowledge management activities depending on R&D project types and to propose a practical plan in building the knowledge management system for corporate R&D institutes.
This study sets a model in order to analyze the relationship between project performance and knowledge management process, which is influenced by the following 5 factors; strategy, organization, people, tasks, and information technology. Project are divided into 4 different types: new technology creation type, new product development type, technology improvement type and business supporting type. Case studies were carried out for 8 projects from a corporate R&D laboratory according to project types.
The results of analysis show that most of projects focus on the activities of knowledge acquirement and creation and formal communication is increasing as projects develop from basic research to implementation. In the case of new technology creation type, informal interrelationship among individuals is dominant, whereas in other project types informal interrelationship as well as formal meeting among group are increasing.
The high performance projects have more vigorous activities through the entire process of knowledge management comparing to the low performance projects. In addition, leader's technological capabilities and active work affects positively to the performance of project members.
In the last part, this study proposes a step-by-step plan for a knowledge management system in R&D laboratories based on the analysis results and organizational member's needs. The first step; establishing open-mind atmosphere for knowledge management and consolidating the existing information technology system and knowledge acquiring system. The second step; integrating organizational knowledge and information technology. Finally; achieving the knowledge management organization with learning effects.
The results of this study could not be generalized in other companies due to the limitation of cases from specific company and comparative studies with other companies are required for more useful implications.
