Journal of Innovation & Knowledge 5 (2020) 130–139

Journal of Innovation
& Knowledge
https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-innovation-and-knowledge

Conceptual paper

Knowledge transfer in the context of inter-organizational networks:

Foundations and intellectual structures
Danilo Marchiori a , Mário Franco b,∗
a
University of Beira Interior, Management and Economics Department, Estrada do Sineiro, 6200-209 Covilhã, Portugal
b
University of Beira Interior, Management and Economics Department, CEGAGE-UBI Research Center, Estrada do Sineiro, 6200-209 Covilhã, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Organizational networks allow the creation and development of knowledge that can be transferred and
Received 26 June 2018 shared among their components, with an impact on organizations’ innovation and performance. Based
Accepted 16 February 2019 on this perspective, this study is the result of research on scientific production related to knowledge
Available online 8 March 2019
transfer in the context of inter-organizational networks. Combining various bibliometric techniques,
such as co-occurrence analysis, bibliographic coupling and co-citation of documents and authors, 102
Keywords: articles on the topic published in the main database of scientific knowledge worldwide, Web of Science,
Knowledge transfer
were analyzed in detail. The results indicate that knowledge transfer, in the context of organizations,
Inter-organizational networks
Bibliometrics
is a recent topic but one that is clearly expanding. Therefore, this subject has increasingly attracted the
Co-occurrence attention of researchers all over the world. This study also identifies the origins of the current literature
Co-citations on the subject, as well as its foundations and main intellectual structures. The analysis made also presents
Bibliographic coupling information that can serve as a basis for future investigators to project, aim for, and attain better results
from their research efforts.
© 2019 Journal of Innovation & Knowledge. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. This is an open access
article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Introduction 2008), and that have focused on this promising field of research,
through the use of advanced bibliometric techniques. More specif-
In recent years, researchers all over the world have increasingly ically, this study aims to answer the following research questions:
concentrated their efforts on the process of knowledge transfer (i) What are the origins and evolution of scientific production on
occurring in the context of inter-organizational networks. A pos- knowledge transfer in the context of organizational networks? (ii)
sible explanation for this growing interest is the recognition that What are the intellectual structures of scientific production on
creation and control of the flow of knowledge, both inside and the topic? and (iii) What are the theoretical foundations origi-
outside the bounds of the organization, are important factors for nating research on the topic? Therefore, the study’s objective is
generating and maintaining organizations’ competitive advantage to systematize scientific production on knowledge transfer in the
(Argote & Ingram, 2000). In this connection, organizations’ capacity domain of organizational networks, through applying advanced
to recognize the value of new external information, and get hold bibliometric techniques, associated with a qualitative analysis of
of it, is fundamental in developing their potential for innovation the contents of the international literature of greatest impact in the
(Cohen & Levinthal, 1990). field.
Setting out from this statement, this study is the result of This research is justified by the relevance of the subject, con-
research on scientific production dealing with how knowledge firmed by the growth in the related scientific production and the
is created and flows between participants in organizational net- lack of similar studies. Firstly, applying advanced bibliometric tech-
works. The aim is to fill an important gap in the literature, since niques, such as co-occurrence analysis, bibliographic coupling and
there is a shortage of studies that have systematically reviewed analysis of co-citations from documents on the main work in the
the literature on the topic, adopting a well-defined protocol for field provides an understanding of the history of the recognition
the selection and analysis of sources (Cronin, Ryan, & Coughlan, and academic impact of publications, as well as the potential for use
by future researchers (Hjørland, 2013). This study also advances
and analyses the proposed topic from various points of view,
∗ Corresponding author. through triangulation of various units of analysis. In complemen-
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (D. Marchiori), [email protected] tary terms, it goes beyond the 102 documents in the sample and
(M. Franco). focuses on the joint work carried out by authors in the field.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2019.02.001
2444-569X/© 2019 Journal of Innovation & Knowledge. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
 D. Marchiori, M. Franco / Journal of Innovation & Knowledge 5 (2020) 130–139 131

In order to provide a logical portrayal, it was decided to present is closed with effective application of that knowledge in the orga-
the content of the study as follows. The next section carries out a nizational context.
review of the literature associated with the phenomenon of knowl- In a broader sense, knowledge sharing is defined as activities of
edge transfer in the context of organizational networks. Then the transferring or disseminating knowledge from one person, group or
criteria used in selecting articles are stated, as well as the tech- organization to another (Ipe, 2003; Lee, 2001). This definition con-
niques applied to analyze the database selected. This is followed tains an important facilitator for knowledge sharing, namely, social
by presentation of the results of the research, and finally, consid- networks in which inter-organizational knowledge is shared. In this
erations of the work carried out and the implications of the results process, individuals serve as knowledge generators and receptors
obtained. (Okyere-Kwakye & Nor, 2011). According to Barbeira (2012), orga-
nizational networks are mechanisms to promote social interaction
which, through generating feelings of trust and reciprocal actions,
Knowledge transfer in organizational networks allow the transfer of knowledge between their participants, as well
as the rapid adoption of innovations.
The growth of organizational networks has generated consider- In general, knowledge sharing represents a key concept within
able interest in this topic among both academics and practitioners the knowledge management process. Here, organizing, structur-
(Culpan, 2009; Shah & Ewaminathan, 2008) and they have grown in ing and combining knowledge are the main processes (Nahapiet
popularity over the last years (Augustine & Cooper, 2009). The prin- & Ghoshal, 1998). Networks are particularly useful for sharing
ciple studies making most reference to the subject of networks are knowledge over the boundaries of an organization. Thus, direct
those by Johanson and Mattsson (1987), Hakansson and Snehota contact among employees from different organizations should
(1989) and the research carried out by Easton (1994). lead to a more efficient transfer of knowledge and subsequently
The creation of organizational networks is an increasingly com- higher absorptive capacity (Schmidt, 2010). Minbaeva, Pedersen,
mon strategy to increase organizations’ competitiveness (Franco, Bjorkman, Fey, and Park (2003) stated that the key factor in knowl-
Haase, & Barbeira, 2015; Holmberg & Cummings, 2009; Inkpen & edge transfer is not the owner’s original knowledge but rather the
Beamish, 1997). Organizational networks can take various forms. extent to which the receiver acquires that knowledge and uses it in
For example, they can be horizontal or vertical, formed between operations. Nevertheless, organizations must acquire and internal-
competitors or clients-suppliers between domestic or international ize only potentially useful knowledge (Harrison & Leitch, 2005). In
partners, or between firms and educational and research institu- addition, organizations must possess so-called ‘absorptive capac-
tions (Álvarez, Marin, & Fonfría, 2009; Barbeira, 2012). In all these ity’, i.e., the ability to use prior knowledge to recognize the value of
contexts, organizational networks have a great potential to create new information and create new knowledge from that information
knowledge, which in turn can be transferred and shared between (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990).
their elements to become a valuable strategic resource for modern Grant (1996a) also considers transfer as one characteristic of
organizations (Cozzarin & Percival, 2006; Das & Teng, 2000; Franco knowledge that is necessary to create value in the context of its
et al., 2015; Schmiedeberg, 2008; Tsai, 2001; Weber & Khademian, use in an inter-organizational network. The transfer of knowl-
2008). edge is a complex process that depends, to a great extent, on
According to Nonaka, Takeuchi, and Umemoto (1996), the cre- organizations’ characteristics, but also on the type of manage-
ation of organizational knowledge is a process of amplifying the ment they adopt (Siegel, Veugelers, & Wright, 2007). In this regard,
knowledge originally created by the individual and its crystal- Boal (2007) stresses that the transfer of tacit knowledge is pro-
lization as part of the organization’s knowledge system, in a moted through strong social network ties, requiring a robust
never-ending spiral of transforming tacit and explicit knowledge. connection between the people involved. According to this author,
As an organizational resource, knowledge differs from others due knowledge dissemination expresses the organization’s capacity
to some particular attributes, namely: (i) it is inexhaustible; (ii) it to reuse existing knowledge and disseminate it throughout the
grows and increases through its share and use; and (iii) it needs con- organization.
tinuous stimulation to avoid becoming obsolete (Passerini, 2007). Knowledge transfer appears to represent a significant factor
From the results and/or objectives it leads to, knowledge represents for knowledge sharing in inter-organizational networks. Organiza-
an entry and exit resource. Knowledge is therefore defined as the tions should be aware that these networks can be an important way
main determinant of organizations’ functioning, sustainable value to access and transfer knowledge, and a way to absorb and create
and performance (Passerini, 2007). new knowledge (Janowicz-Panjaitan & Noorderhaven, 2008).
For Nonaka et al. (1996), there are four ways of converting According to the Häkasson and Ford, 2002 model, it is natu-
knowledge: (i) socialization (tacit to tacit); (ii) externalization (tacit ral and expected that knowledge, in the organizational network
to explicit); (iii) combination (explicit to explicit) and (iv) internal- context, extends beyond the limits of each organization and flows
ization (explicit to tacit). In this context, Barbeira (2012) explains through the network structures via its nodes (participating orga-
that organizations should have the capacity to manage knowledge, nizations) and lines (links between organizations). However, for
handling its various dimensions creatively. For knowledge, often knowledge to be effectively shared in the network, some conditions
organizations’ most valuable resource (Assudani, 2005), to be effec- are necessary, such as the effective exchange of experience, coop-
tive and transformed into value, it must be correctly contextualized, eration, compatibility of organizational culture and motivation, as
compiled, categorized, stored, spread and used, as well as possibly well as establishing strong relationships and cohesive groups, cre-
corrected and reused (Jarrar, 2002). ating conditions for the formation of mutual trust among network
As Franco et al. (2015) explained, knowledge-sharing is a key participants (Barbeira, 2012; Soekijad & Andriessen, 2003). In this
concept in the knowledge management process, to the extent connection, Abdullah, Hamzah, Arshad, Isa, and Ghani (2011) indi-
that various researchers have focused on identifying the stages cated that knowledge transfer depends on the existence of a climate
involved, highlighting Nonaka (1994), Spender (1996), Teece that promotes collaboration and trust, and on participants feeling
(1998), Gold, Malhotra, and Segars (2001), Darroch (2003), Franco rewarded for their effort.
and Mariano (2007) and Law and Ngai (2008). Setting out from Finally, the formation of networks allows diverse forms of
these studies, Franco et al. (2015) proposed that organizational cooperation and partnerships between organizations. In particular,
knowledge management begins with the acquisition of knowledge, knowledge sharing through inter-organizational social networks
followed by its dissemination within the organization and the cycle may lead to synergies and higher organizational efficiency. In fact,
132 D. Marchiori, M. Franco / Journal of Innovation & Knowledge 5 (2020) 130–139

networks can be a means to create and share knowledge, which is 16

15 15

often interpreted as their main function. 14

12 11

Nº of articles
10
8
8 7 7
Methodology
6 5 5
5 4
4 4 4
4
Selection of articles 2 2
2 1 1 1
1
0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0
As emphasized by Webster and Watson (2002), a literature

92
93
94
95
96
97

98
99

00
01
02
03

04
05
06
07

20 8
09

10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
0
19
19
19
19
19
19

19
19

20
20
20
20

20
20
20
20
20

20
20
20
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20
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20
review can adopt two approaches: (i) a review of topics on which Year
there is already a great volume of accumulated knowledge, in which
case the procedures of analysis and synthesis are useful; and (ii) a Fig. 1. Publications by year and tendency.

review of emerging topics on which the literature is not usually so

extensive, in which case the main contribution is presentation of
or expressions occur together (Van Eck & Waltman, 2010; Waltman,
the potential theoretical bases. This literature review is set in the
van Eck, & Noyons, 2010).
former perspective. Cronin et al. (2008) clarified that the technical
The bibliographic coupling technique was originally proposed
procedure of researching articles can be based on two strategies:
by Kessler (1963) and is based on identifying references shared by
(i) a narrative or traditional review of the literature, a procedure
two articles. That is, the existence of an item of reference com-
that results in presenting the literature without explaining the cri-
mon to two articles indicates they are bibliometrically coupled
teria used in its selection; and (ii) a systematic literature review,
(Egghe & Rousseau, 2002). The strength of that link, or coupling,
which adopts a well-defined protocol for selection and analysis of
increases according to the number of references shared by the arti-
sources. This study adopted the latter strategy. More specifically,
cles (Grácio, 2016). Application of bibliographic coupling allows a
it adopted a quantitative approach to analyze the literature on the
retrospective analysis of scientific production, considering that the
proposed topic, mixing basic indicators with advanced bibliometric
strength of the link between the articles is fixed, rather than chang-
techniques. As underlined by O’Connor and Voos (1981), a biblio-
ing over time (Small, 1973). Therefore, considering that the set of
metric analysis can contribute to scientific knowledge by helping
references used in a study reflects the intellectual environment
to explain the causes of the bibliographical phenomena related to
from which the researchers worked (Grácio, 2016), the bibliometric
subjects of scientific interest.
coupling technique allows identification of the nuclei of research,
The articles gathered in the sample used for this study were
the researchers and the most important articles in a given field of
identified by consulting the main database of scientific articles
research (Grácio, 2016). For Glänzel (2003), bibliographic coupling
worldwide, Web of Science, specifically from the following indices:
is one of the most efficient ways to view a scientific domain.
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded), Science Citation
However, Grácio (2016) explains that bibliographic coupling has
Index Social (SSCI), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A & HCI),
some limitations, as the technique is based on studying the links
Conference Proceedings Citation Index – Science (CPCI-S), Conference
originally defined by the authors (citations), which allows only a
Proceedings Citation Index – Social Science & Humanities (CPCI-SSH)
partial vision of a field’s intellectual structure. Therefore, the author
and Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). No categorical or chrono-
proposes that more thorough and complete bibliographic analyses
logical filters were applied. The terms of research used and applied
should add another complementary technique: co-citation anal-
to the titles, abstracts and key words were: “organizational net-
ysis. Proposed by Small (1973), co-citation analysis is a way to
work”, “knowledge transfer”, “knowledge sharing” and “knowledge
analyze the link between two articles based on the frequency with
management”. The Boolean operators “AND” and “OR” were used,
which those documents are quoted together. That is, the more
combined to increase the coverage of the results and used as fol-
often two articles are quoted together (co-citation), the stronger the
lows: “*organiza* network*” AND (“know* transfer*” OR “know*
link between those articles. Here, the strength of the bond linking
shar*” OR “know* management*”). The consultation was carried
two articles can grow over time, inasmuch as that link is dynamic
out on 29 April 2017 and resulted in 102 scientific articles pub-
and established later (Grácio, 2016). Analysis of links between
lished in journals and conference annals indexed on the Web of
pairs of documents through co-citations allows a description of
Science database, with publication dates between 1992 (1 article)
the dependence existing between articles, researchers, fields and
and 2017 (5 articles, until the month of April).
approaches. It is therefore possible to identify the strength of the
link between documents, authors, themes, journals and countries
(Grácio, 2016; Hjørland, 2002). That is, by examining the proximity
Bibliometric analyses
of two researchers through how often they are quoted together by
the scientific community, recognition of the intellectual and social
The file containing the set of 102 studies was created directly
structure constructed by that community is shown, independently
on the Web of Science platform and exported to VOSviewer, ver-
of the perception of those co-cited themselves (Grácio, 2016).
sion 1.6.5 software, allowing various bibliographic analyses based
on the method proposed by Eck and Waltman (2009), Van Eck and
Waltman (2010). More specifically, the following complementary Results and discussion
bibliometric techniques were applied: (i) co-occurrence analysis,
(ii) bibliographic coupling of documents and authors, and (iii) anal- Description of the field
ysis of co-citations from documents and authors. In order to identify
the principal specific issues dealt with in the set of 102 sample Fig. 1 indicates the beginning and illustrates the evolution of
articles, a co-occurrence analysis of words and expressions was per- articles published on the topic of knowledge transfer in the con-
formed. For this, text-mining techniques were applied to the titles, text of inter-organizational networks. The information is provided
abstracts and key words of the documents. Co-occurrence links by year, and reveals a clear growth of publications in subsequent
are based on identifying multiple words or expressions occurring years. The first study identified was Groenewegen (1992), which
together in the same document. The relationship between items is analyses the role of research and development networks in the
determined based on the number of documents in which the words Dutch context, involving universities and firms in the high-tech
 D. Marchiori, M. Franco / Journal of Innovation & Knowledge 5 (2020) 130–139 133

Table 1
Most cited articles.

Authors Article title Total of citations Mean by year

Tsai (2001) Knowledge transfer in intraorganizational networks: Effects of 1090 64.12

network position and absorptive capacity on business unit
innovation and performance
Owen-Smith and Knowledge networks as channels and conduits: The effects of 638 45.57
Powell (2004) spillovers in the Boston biotechnology community
Tsai (2002) Social structure of “coopetition” within a multiunit 534 33.38
organization: Coordination, competition, and
intraorganizational knowledge sharing
Scarbrough (2003) Knowledge management, HRM and the innovation process 96 6.40
Chung et al. (2004) Networked enterprise: A new business model for global 65 4.64
sourcing
Chiaroni et al. (2010) Unravelling the process from Closed to Open Innovation: 61 7.62
evidence from mature, asset-intensive industries
Dokko and Rosenkopf Social capital for hire? Mobility of technical professionals and 55 6.88
(2010) firm influence in wireless standards committees
Paruchuri (2010) Intraorganizational networks, interorganizational networks, 51 6.38
and the impact of central inventors: A longitudinal study of
pharmaceutical firms
Thorgren et al. (2009) Designing interorganizational networks for innovation: An 47 5.22
empirical examination of network configuration, formation
and governance.
Hartley and Benington Copy and paste, or graft and transplant? Knowledge sharing 34 2.83
(2006) through inter-organizational networks.

ceramic industry. The author indicated there were important dif- Table 2
Studies by source (number of studies published in brackets).
ferences between institutional networks (government bodies and
universities) and business networks, and that government policies Organization Science (9)
have a significant impact on academic researchers’ activity, but do R&D Management (4)
Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on Knowledge Management Vols. 1
not have the same impact on research developed by firms. It was
and 2 (3)
eight years after the publication of Groenewegen’s study before Journal of Knowledge Management (3)
the topic was revisited, with the work of Van Aken and Weggeman Journal of Business Research (3)
(2000). The authors discussed the nature and productivity of infor- Expert Systems with Applications (3)
mal innovation networks, i.e., informal collaboration agreements Lecture Notes in Computer Science (2)
Journal of Strategic Information Systems (2)
between organizations involved in product or process innovation.
Journal of Engineering And Technology Management (2)
2001 was the year with the greatest stimulus for research on Journal of Business Industrial Marketing (2)
knowledge transfer in the context of organizational networks. More
specifically, in this year, Professor Wenpin Tsai of Pennsylvania
State University published the article Knowledge Transfer in Intraor- Table 3
ganizational Networks: Effects of Network Position and Absorptive Most productive institutions.

Capacity on Business Unit Innovation and Performance. Tsai (2001) University Country Publications
has 1.090 citations made by studies on the Web of Science database,
Radboud University Nijmegen Netherlands 4
and according to that criterion, it is the most important article on University of Washington Seattle USA 3
the subject in this study. The author used the concept of absorptive University of Washington USA 3
capacity (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990) and the notion that an organiza- University of Warwick UK 3
University of Groningen Netherlands 3
tion’s position in a network influences the opportunities to access
University of California System USA 3
new knowledge (Dougherty & Hardy, 1996; Ibarra, 1993; Van de Tsinghua University China 3
Ven, 1986) to carry out empirical research on the knowledge flow Eindhoven University of Technology Netherlands 3
in a firm network in the oil sector. Tsai (2001) concluded that orga- Beijing Jiaotong University China 3
nizational units can produce more innovations and achieve better
performance if they occupy central positions in the network, as this
gives easier access to new knowledge. Nevertheless, that advantage common sources, with at least 2 studies, which account for 32%
will only be effective if they have developed the absorptive capacity of all scientific production in the field. As the other 79 sources pub-
to successfully replicate that new knowledge. lished 1 article each, the distribution of work on knowledge transfer
After Tsai (2001), the growth of publications on the topic was in the context of organizational networks can be considered very
notable, with the two most productive years being 2010 and 2015, scattered.
with 15 articles published each year. In 2017, up to April, 5 new Regarding universities’ productivity, a Dutch institution leads
studies became available to the scientific community. Table 1 the ranking for studies on the subject, with 4 publications: Radboud
presents the 10 most quoted studies among the 102 in the sample University Nijmegen. In the list, 8 institutions appear with 3 publica-
studied. tions each, 3 North-American, 2 Dutch and 2 Chinese universities,
Analysis of the scientific journals and conference annals as shown in Table 3. Another 21 universities contributed 2 studies
publishing articles on knowledge transfer in the sphere of inter- each. Finally, 110 institutions are in the ranking with one study
organizational networks identified the North-American journal each. In terms of national production, 4 countries are responsible
Organization Science (ISSN: 1047-7039; impact factor in 2015: 3.36) for 66 studies, i.e., accounting for 64.7% of production worldwide.
as the main channel for publishing work on the topic, with 9 arti- The United States is in first place with 26 studies (25.5%), followed
cles (8.9% of the total). In total, 89 journals or conference annals by China with 16 (15.7%). Then come the Netherlands and the
published studies on the subject. Table 2 presents the 10 most United Kingdom with 12 studies each (11.8%). The remainder of
134 D. Marchiori, M. Franco / Journal of Innovation & Knowledge 5 (2020) 130–139

Innovation, 40

Others, 80

Performance, 32

Absorprtive
Product
Capacity,22
Development, 9
Competitive
Advantage, 9
Technology, 11 Social Networks,
16
Embeddedness, Weak Ties, 16
11 Structural Holes,
12

Fig. 2. Most frequent themes.

scientific production on the topic came from researchers in another the analysis technique of bibliographic coupling of documents
28 countries in all continents. Those results indicate that interest was applied (Kessler, 1965). No cut-off criterion was established
in the topic has increased significantly and that although recently (for example, number of citations), considering that one of the
introduced to the literature, knowledge transfer in the context advantages of this bibliographic coupling technique is precisely
of organizational networks is a diversified and promising field of the possibility to analyze new work that has not had time to be
research. quoted (Rehn, Gornitzki, Larson, & Wadskog, 2014). Considering
that only 95 articles have mutual connections, i.e., sharing at least
Structures of the field one study in their list of references, 7 articles were withdrawn.
Fig. 3 presents the map formed through bibliographic coupling
In order to identify the matters most frequently addressed in of documents, with visual indication of clusters by colour. That
studies on knowledge transfer in the organizational network con- division suggests there are thematic, theoretical or conceptual
text, the 102 studies in the sample were submitted to an analysis similarities that differentiate articles in one group from those in
of word and expression co-occurrence. To do so, text-mining tech- the others (Egghe & Rousseau, 2002; Zhao & Strotmann, 2008). The
niques were applied to the documents’ titles, abstracts and key studies are represented by the circles (nodes) of the network. The
words. Words with a minimum of 5 occurrences were considered. size of the nodes is proportional to the number of citations from
In this way, the initial set of 563 words and expressions was reduced each study and the studies’ proximity or distance in the network
to 41. Then the related words and expressions were analyzed visu- indicates to what extent they are coupled bibliographically, i.e.,
ally. The aim was to identify terms that should be excluded, such as the presence of two studies that are physically very close indicates
indications of the names of countries, analysis techniques, the com- they share a good deal of their set of references.
bination of words in the singular and plural, and identification of Application of the technique of bibliographic coupling of doc-
repeated terms. The sample was thereby reduced to 25 items. Fig. 2 uments indicated that the set of studies can be divided in three
presents the distribution of the themes most frequently mentioned groups. The first cluster, indicated in red, is formed of 39 documents
in the 102 sample studies. which, in general, analyze the organization especially from the
It should be highlighted that the most common theme in the perspective of processes of innovation and organizational change
studies was identified as being “innovation” (40 occurrences), fol- and the risks of knowledge leaking outside organizational bound-
lowed by “performance” (32 occurrences). That is, the majority of aries. The second cluster (green) covers the 32 studies mostly
studies made on knowledge transfer in the context of organiza- concerned with network configuration and member-organizations’
tional networks is focus on understanding how knowledge flows capacities to absorb and spread knowledge. Finally, the third
and can be appropriated by network participants, with the aim of cluster (blue) is the result of grouping 24 documents that focus
allowing organizations to create new processes, products or ser- on analyzing the role of individuals in networks and organiza-
vices, with direct consequences for organizational performance, as tions, dealing especially with topics such as human capital and
observed by Tsai (2011). Also underlined is the importance of the social networks, as well as network management and governance.
literature on networks, as shown by the presence of themes such as Table 4 presents the 95 studies analyzed and their respective clus-
“social networks” (16 occurrences), “weak bonds” (16 occurrences) ters.
and “embeddedness” (11 occurrences) (Granovetter, 1973, 1985). Aiming to extend knowledge of the structures of the literature
Another significant finding is the importance of the literature on on knowledge transfer in the network context, the technique
absorptive capacity (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990), mentioned 22 times of bibliographic coupling of authors was also applied (Zhao &
and present since the work of Tsai (2001). Strotmann, 2008). This gives a truer and deeper view of a scientific
To identify the networks formed from the degree of similarity of domain, especially when used together with other bibliometric
the references used by the authors of the 102 articles in the sample, techniques such as bibliographic coupling of documents and
 D. Marchiori, M. Franco / Journal of Innovation & Knowledge 5 (2020) 130–139 135

Fig. 3. Map of bibliographically coupled documents with clusters.

Table 4
Articles, clusters and citations.

Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3

Article Citations Article Citations Article Citations

Scarbrough (2003) 96 Tsai (2001) 1090 Owen-Smith and Powel (2004) 638
Chung et al. (2004) 65 Tsai (2002) 534 Dokko and Rosenkopf (2010) 55
Chiaroni et al. (2010) 61 Guler and Nerkar (2012) 20 Paruchuri (2010) 51
Hartley and Benington (2006) 34 Agterberg et al. (2010) 20 Thorgren et al. (2009) 47
Trkman and Desouza (2012) 21 Tang et al. (2010) 18 Van Aken and Weggeman (2000) 33
Morton et al. (2006) 26 Mu et al. (2010) 18 Meltzer et al. (2010) 31
Mirabelli and Newell (2012) 21 Tang et al. (2006) 16 Casanueva et al. (2013) 22
Janhonen and Johanson (2011) 16 Zhou et al. (2010) 15 Mariotti and Delbridge (2012) 22
Hutzschenreuter and Horstkotte (2010) 16 Lomi et al. (2014) 10 Bellamy et al. (2014) 21
Muller-Seitz (2012) 12 Tang (2011) 9 Zong et al. (2013) 19
Jippes et al. (2012) 11 Patriotta et al. (2013) 8 Ghosh and Rosenkopf (2015) 6
Kumpers et al. (2006) 11 Caimo and Lomi (2015) 5 Gluckler and Panitz (2015) 3
Filieri et al. (2014) 10 Aalbers et al. (2013) 5 Filieri and Alguezaui (2014) 3
Alin et al. (2011) 8 Unsal and Taylor (2011) 5 Groenewegen (1992) 3
Weber and Weber (2011) 7 Hackney et al. (2008) 5 Poorkavoos et al. (2016) 1
Jolink and Dankbaar (2010) 7 Aalbers et al. (2014) 4 Gilsing et al. (2016) 1
Turner and Pennington (2015) 5 Srivastava (2015) 3 Cong et al. (2017) 0
Forzi and Peters (2005) 5 Sosa et al. (2015) 3 Neij et al. (2017) 0
Low and Johnston (2010) 4 Zappa and Lomi (2015) 3 Belso-Martinez et al. (2017) 0
Hustad and Teigland (2005) 4 Lee and Lee (2015) 3 Toigo (2017) 0
Mischen (2015) 3 Shin and Kook (2014) 3 Inkpen and Tsang (2016) 0
Luo et al. (2015) 2 Chan et al. (2008) 3 Poorkavoos et al. (2011) 0
Dong et al. (2011) 2 Kleinbaum and Stuart (2014) 2 Yang and Xu (2010) 0
Bourouni et al. (2014) 1 Sroka et al. (2014) 2 Zhang and Chen (2010) 0
Bagheri et al. (2016) 0 Aalbers and Dolfsma (2015) 1
Hansen and Pries-Heje (2016) 0 Mollona and Marcozzi (2009) 1
Jansen et al. (2015) 0 Villaselero (2017) 0
Gopsill et al. (2015) 0 Crispeels et al. (2014) 0
Meireles et al. (2012) 0 Lamari et al. (2014) 0
Al-Busaidi (2012) 0 Tang (2007) 0
Matos et al. (2012) 0 Ma et al. (2005) 0
Bhattacharjya et al. (2010) 0 Xu et al. (2005) 0
Zhou et al. (2008) 0
Grienaldi and Cricelli (2007) 0
Rodiqi (2007) 0
Taatila (2007) 0
Forzi et al. (2004) 0
Simões and Soares (2004) 0
Sirkemaa (2002) 0
136 D. Marchiori, M. Franco / Journal of Innovation & Knowledge 5 (2020) 130–139

Fig. 4. Authors and density of relationships in the set of studies.

co-citation analyses (Grácio, 2016; Zhao & Strotmann, 2008). Analysis of the document co-citation network showed that the
Considering that an author’s work generally increases over time, articles with the greatest number of citations in the 102 articles in
bibliographic coupling of authors captures that evolution, in the sample, i.e., the work with greatest impact in the current liter-
that it considers all the work of the authors analyzed. However, ature on the subject of knowledge transfer in the network domain,
not all the studies of the 232 authors initially identified shared are as follows: Hansen (1999) (29 citations); Cohen and Levinthal
references mutually. That characteristic was identified in the work (1990) (26 citations); Reagans and McEvily (2003) (22 citations);
of 220 authors. As in the bibliographic coupling of documents, no Tsai (2001) and Grant (1996b) (21 citations each). Two major clus-
filters were applied concerning the number of articles or citations ters of studies were identified. The first, shown in Fig. 5 in red,
received by the authors, to allow identification of authors who covers studies belonging to an approach related to the theory of net-
have begun their research on the subject recently. works and social networks. The second group, identified in green,
Changing the unit of analysis from individual documents to deals principally with work following an approach related to the
authors allowed construction of a heat map of the volume of flow of knowledge in organizations.
scientific production by authors contributing to the subject’s devel- Finally, following the recommendations of White and Griffith
opment (Fig. 4). The colours on the heat map indicate the intensity (1981), the unit of analysis was transferred from documents to
of the connection of the authors’ scientific production. According to authors’ collective work, i.e., to studying the frequency with which
Van Eck and Waltman (2010), the greater the number of items close an author is connected to other authors, without specifying which
to a point and the greater the weight of the neighbouring items, the studies were co-cited by the sample articles. The strategy, based
closer the item (author) will be to red. on the assumption that an author’s total work represents more
Observation of the map allows identification of three major appropriately their influence on a field’s structure (Grácio, 2016),
groups of authors intensely connected in terms of the sets of refer- revealed that 3.127 authors were quoted in the 102 articles in the
ences used in their production. In addition, a more detailed analysis sample. However, in order to understand clearly which researchers
of the heat map corroborates identification of 3 clusters in research contributed most to the foundations of the field, a cut-off limit of
on knowledge transfer in the organizational network context, as a minimum 20 citations in the set of 102 articles was established.
indicated in Table 4. In this way, 26 authors were selected as having their total work
related to the subject of this study, as seen in Table 5.

Foundations of the field Conclusions and implications

Aiming to aid comprehension of the theoretical foundations of This study identified, described and characterized the origins,
studies on the topic, the network of studies referred to by the 102 evolution and how the intellectual structures of technical knowl-
articles in the sample was analyzed, by applying the analytical tech- edge were linked to the knowledge transfer in the context of
nique of document co-citation (Small, 1973). Here, the focus of inter-organizational networks, as well as to the conceptual and
analysis moves from the set of articles forming the literature in the methodological foundations of the field literature. To do so, 102
field (the 102 articles in the sample) to the set of references quoted articles were extracted from the Web of Science database. Apply-
by those articles. Examination indicated the presence of 4.406 ref- ing bibliometric techniques and making qualitative analyses of the
erences, of which 28 had at least 10 citations. This cut-off point is international studies with greatest impact in the field, it has been
justified as co-citation analysis aims to determine the most impor- noticed that recent years have been marked by increased publi-
tant grounding studies on the subject (Small, 1973). The network cations on the subject and an increasing trend of related science.
formed by the main references quoted by the authors addressing The objectives are considered to have been fulfilled, inasmuch as
the topic of knowledge transfer in inter-organizational networks is the first studies associated with these themes were identified and
presented in Fig. 5. analyzed (Groenewegen, 1992; Van Aken & Weggeman, 2000), as
 D. Marchiori, M. Franco / Journal of Innovation & Knowledge 5 (2020) 130–139 137

Fig. 5. Network of co-citations and clusters.

Table 5 context of inter-organizational networks stand out. The first group

Main authors co-cited (total citations in brackets).
was identified as related to the literature on networks theory and
Nonaka, I. (56) Borgatti, S.P. (36) Argote, L. (27) social networks and the second more aligned to studying the flow
Burt, R. S. (51) Reagans, R. (35) Ahuja, G. (25) of knowledge in organizations. The authors contributing most to
Hansen, M. T (51) Tushman, M. L. (31) Brown, J. S. (25)
development of the theme were identified, namely I. Nonaka, R.S.
Gulati, R. (49) Kogut, B. (30) Cross, R (23)
Tsai, W. P. (48) Szulanski, G (30) Ibarra, H. (23) Burt, M.T. Hansen, R. Gulati, W.P. Tsai, M.S. Granovetter and B.
Granovetter, M. S. (45) Inkpen, A. C. (28) March, J. G. (20) Uzzi.
Uzzi, B. (42) Krackhardt, D. Podolny, J. M. (20) This study also presents some theoretical and practical contribu-
Powell, W. W. (38) Cohen, W. M. (27) Brass, D. J. (20)
tions. The results of this study contribute to advancing knowledge
Grant, R. M. (37) Dyer, J. H. (27)
on knowledge transfer in the context of inter-organizational
networks. The literature on this topic has originated research
with diverse theoretical, quantitative or qualitative approaches.
well as the principal article that stimulated all scientific produc- Thus, the theoretical contribution this study seeks to provide is
tion in the following years (Tsai, 2001). In these circumstances, an organized and classified view of how the theme of knowl-
the main components of the intellectual structure characterizing edge transfer in the context of inter-organizational networks has
the research already carried out on the subject were identified and been explored in the literature. This study contributes, there-
discussed. More specifically, the evolution of the studies produced fore, to a better visualization of the types of approaches and
was presented, finding a clear tendency to produce new studies of attempts to measure this phenomenon inside and outside
in the following years, indicating to new researchers that this is a the organizations, and how it has been applied strategically in
promising topic. A survey with more research on the subject is from organizations.
Radboud University Nijmegen. However, the United States is the From a practical viewpoint, the results seek to broaden the
country with the largest number of publications (e.g., Organization knowledge about the phenomenon studied, highlighting new gaps
Science) identified. that provide an advance in the theme, allowing researchers, policy-
In relation to the field structures, application of the keyword co- makers and practitioners to opt for more productive and successful
occurrence technique allowed us to identify that the themes most paths in their organizations, a practical gain so to speak, result-
approached were innovation and organizational performance. In ing in better identification of the opportunities arising within the
other words, the literature seeks, in an important way, to under- environment.
stand how knowledge flows and can be appropriated by network Despite these contributions, it is necessary to recognize the
participants in order to generate innovation in processes, products existence of some limitations, starting with the limited presen-
and services, as well as improving organizational performance. Sev- tation of theoretical aspects of knowledge transfer in the context
eral authors (e.g., Efrat, 2014; Kim, 2013) have sought to highlight of inter-organizational networks, which can be explained by the
knowledge flows as drivers for innovation. In addition, the analysis emphasis given to quantitative aspects of the literature on the
of bibliographic coupling of the analyzed work allowed its classi- subject, a characteristic of bibliometric studies. In addition, the
fication in three clusters, according to similarity of content and/or study does not make direct contributions to commercial practice,
methodology. That is, studies are grouped as follows: (i) innova- although this may occur indirectly by encouraging and directing
tion processes, organizational change and knowledge leakage; (ii) future research. It is also important to focus the analyses on the
configuration of networks and capacities of knowledge absorption set of selected works from the use of specific keywords, as well
and retention; and (iii) the role of individuals in the networks and as the use of only one database (Web of Science – SSCI). Thus, one
forms of network governance. recommendation is to expand the survey using more databases
This study also scrutinized the theoretical foundations of the to collect articles related to the subject, even considering that
selected literature, through applying the techniques of analysis this base used (SSCI) is recognized as a reference for academia,
of co-citation of documents and authors. Here, two major groups as this would make the study more robust, thus eliminating that
of studies giving origin to the literature on knowledge in the limitation.
138 D. Marchiori, M. Franco / Journal of Innovation & Knowledge 5 (2020) 130–139

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