The strategic knowledge-based dependency diagrams: a tool for analyzing strategic knowledge dependencies for the purposes of understanding and communicating

The role of knowledge in organizations has been conceptualized in ways that range from viewing it as a primary input to the production process, to offering a knowledge-based view of the whole organization. While divergent in their approaches, the differing views increasingly emphasize the role of inter-functional and inter-organizational knowledge linkages in determining the performance of a firm (Grant and Baden-Fuller in J Manag Stud 41(1):61-84, 2004). This paper offers a conceptualization of these linkages in what is termed a knowledge dependency. Adopting the view of knowledge as the primary organizational resource (Grant in Strateg Manag J 17(Winter Special Issue):109-122, 1996), we use ideas and concepts from the resource dependency theory (Pfeffer and Salancik in The external control of organizations: a resource dependence perspective, 1978) and knowledge transformation cycle (Carlile and Rebentisch in Manag Sci 49(9):1180-1195, 2003) to identify relevant constructs and relationships needed to model these knowledge dependencies. Building on a number of already established modeling techniques, we propose a new modeling grammar that explicitly captures the appropriation of knowledge in activities needed to realize the identified goals, and the knowledge flows between the different actors in an application domain. The resulting script (strategic knowledge-based dependency diagram) is a conceptual model that aids in the analysis stage preceding the design of an information system that supports knowledge-based processes across organizations.