Title: A knowledge management view to a strategic change in a high-tech company

Authors: Nina Helander, Marianne Kukko, Pasi Virtanen

Addresses: Department of Business Information Management and Logistics, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 541, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland. ' Department of Business Information Management and Logistics, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 541, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland. ' Department of Business Information Management and Logistics, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 541, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland

Abstract: This paper presents a qualitative case study of a high-tech company, a software firm implementing a strategic change regarding its R&D and production functions. The company is changing its project-oriented software development processes towards re-use of software code, i.e., component-based-software-engineering (CBSE). By this decision, the company tries to conquer the ever changing demands of external environment by using existing knowledge more effectively. With this, they also aim to release more resources to the development of new innovative ideas. The objective of this paper is to highlight the major obstacles of this kind of strategic change from knowledge management perspective, which is highly relevant viewpoint for a knowledge intensive company like high-tech companies. We also suggest in the paper how the identified obstacles of strategic change can be tackled by building on prior literature of high technology industry and knowledge management.

Keywords: strategic management; high-tech firms; high technology; knowledge management; KM; R&D; obstacles to change; change management; research and development; software industry; software reuse; component-based software engineering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSCM.2011.040633

International Journal of Strategic Change Management, 2011 Vol.3 No.1/2, pp.76 - 89

Published online: 28 Feb 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article