Managing knowledge impedance: A case from the office products industry

We present a case from the office products industry, which reveals some of the processes that govern distributed knowledge creation and innovation in new product development. The case demonstrates that for a firm to deliver technology in a timely manner it must manage its knowledge impedance. Failure to do so can cause significant delays in development, which result in loss of market share and severe loss of revenue. Knowledge impedance is defined as the degree of difficulty with which a particular type of knowledge is transferred between two or more entities, co-created by two or more entities, or transformed by two or more entities. Entities can be individuals, groups, organizations or firms, which may operate at different sites in different geographic regions. We find that it no longer suffices to coordinate concurrent knowledge creation activities that transpire across different organizations and sites. Effectively managing knowledge impedance requires the distributed entities to synchronize their knowledge creation activity. They must front-load inter-organizational socialization processes, in order to engage in joint, simultaneous problem-solving across sites.