Understanding the knowledge needs of engineers: A comparative analysis of Japanese software and hardware engineers

Product and service innovation has become an increasingly complex process, requiring knowledge from a wide range of sources both external and internal to the organization. The purpose of this research is to identify the knowledge that software/service engineers-in comparison to hardware engineers- need to retrieve from past projects and for future projects and to identify enablers and barriers to knowledge management. A quantitative study of Japanese engineers was conducted, and the accumulated data was analyzed using text-mining and regression analysis. Results showed that software/service engineers value knowledge related to specifications and development, while design/production/maintenance engineers attach more importance to knowledge related to technology, design, cases, customers and competitors. There was also a difference in the amount of time spent on knowledge management activities, which was significantly lower for software/service engineers. And although intention emerged as the most important enabler of knowledge management overall, a combination of individual and organizational factors were found to hinder knowledge management activities. These findings suggest that software/service engineers and design/production/maintenance engineers have different requirements and perceptions with regards to knowledge management, and that firms need to motivate engineers by providing distinct organizational contexts specific to their engineering needs.