Distribute Knowledge across Boundaries

*London School of Economics and Political Science ([email protected]; [email protected]) University of Oslo ([email protected] ) Abstract The strategic use of knowledge and its management depend upon the relevant organizational context. The model of the “learning ladder” is a compact way of describing the unfolding of multiple organizational knowledge creation, transformation and transfer processes in a single firm context. Additionally, in this context the governance of the firm internal knowledge processes is performed according to the resource based view of strategy. In this paper two different contexts challenging such model are explored in the case of a large pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca. First, the boundaries of the single firm are crossed by looking at those advantages, which may be attained by managing the transfer and co-production of unique knowledge between a few allied firms according to the theory of relational rents. AstraZeneca “formal network” is discussed in the light of this model. Secondly, emerging features of how knowledge is managed among a large number of interdependent organizations and individuals are explored with reference to the case of a very peculiar R&D department at AstraZeneca: Clinical Science. While in the first case the model prove to hold, in the latter context behaviours and performances seem to contradict the principles of knowledge management inspired by the resource-based and relational views. This is puzzling: conventional strategic and knowledge management frameworks break down precisely when dealing with highly distributed, knowledge intensive businesses.