Replacing the Transfer Agenda – A Paradigmatic Shift to a Strategy of Arbitrage

How knowledge is created under approaches such as the scientific method has been the subject of much debate (Kuhn, 1962). The role of knowledge in management is broadly understood under the hegemonic approach of... [ view full abstract ]

How knowledge is created under approaches such as the scientific method has been the subject of much debate (Kuhn, 1962). The role of knowledge in management is broadly understood under the hegemonic approach of the knowledge/technology transfer agenda. Recent attempts to expand this discussion by exploring knowledge creation has also been characterised as a knowledge transfer, exchange or flow problem. This presents theoretical, philosophical and indeed methodological problems for researchers who argue different and often conflicting understandings of what ‘knowledge’ is and how it comes into being. With the rise of process theory, and processual approaches to understand organisational phenomenon, the dynamics of processes leading to ‘knowledge creating’ remains poorly understood. This research paper considers a processual approach to ‘knowledge creat-ing’ by shifting attention to a strategy of arbitrage, a process of creating in a relational sense overtime, in contrast to previous hegemonic approaches which consider genesis events of creation. This research paper explores this within a university-industry context asking how this relationship, and its processes, facilitate knowledge creating. In so doing it contribution is the focus on a new and often ignored concept – ‘knowledge creating’.