On the Role of Partners in a Multi-Disciplinary Business Network: A Knowledge Management Perspective

Creating a successful offering in a knowledge-intensive industry often requires access to knowledge that complements the core technological knowledge of a firm. However, this complementary knowledge is often tacit and hence costly to acquire. In this paper, we investigate how a firm can acquire the necessary complementary knowledge by leveraging partners in its business network. Based on a multiple case study of four Finnish enterprise software firms, we find that engaging partners who possess both core and complementary knowledge improves the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge transfer between the focal firm and its customers. In addition, using partners for this purpose allows the focal firm to concentrate on developing its core competences, which ultimately is the source of competitive advantage and superior market and financial performance. Our findings constitute a step towards moving from dyadic to networked knowledge acquisition models and understanding their impact on firm performance.