Knowledge transfer
For a structured overview of the field of knowledge
transfer, it helps to think in terms of
in what forms knowledge can be carried (and transferred)
through what channels or mechanisms knowledge transfer can take place
how transferred knowledge is turned into benefits, and by whom
what strategies are appropriate for different channels, and how PROs can organise their knowledge transfer activities.
Major forms in which knowledge can be carried and hence transferred:
as codified knowledge, expressed through language (including mathematics), for example as scientific literature or patents
as internalised by people who have acquired codified knowledge and knowhow through study, instruction, and experience, for example graduates or experienced researchers leaving their institutions to work in an enterprise that they may (but need not) have set up themselves
as embedded in artefacts more or less ‘ready to use’ such as machinery or software or new materials or modified organisms; often called ‘technology’.
Channels of knowledge transfer