Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation

This is a book about how firms manage their knowledge assets, specifically the creation and growth of their technological capabilities. It is based on extensive field research undertaken in US manufacturing companies over a ten year period. At the center of the analysis is the concept of core capabilities, comprising skills and knowledge base, physical systems, managerial systems, and values. Unchecked, these capabilities can become core rigidities restricting the ability of the firm to develop and exploit knowledge. These constructs are used to examine a range of key innovation activities, both within and outside the firm, and, in broader terms, to discuss growth and renewal at the national level. This is a well researched book, combining the insights that come from a very detailed knowledge of the field with a very real concern to make their significance readily available to both scholar and practitioner.