Modelling Procedural Knowledge Creation in Small Manufacturing Firms Through the Identification of key Determinants

This paper presents a study aimed at identifying major determinants of the creation of procedural knowledge in small manufacturing firms. A model of knowledge creation in which knowledge is a by-product of technical problem-solving is adopted. Particularly, a cognitive-constructionist perspective is assumed, considering organizational knowledge built thanks to a collective effort of people working together during technical problem-solving when managers, engineers and technicians deal with unfamiliar and unexpected situations. From literature and an in-depth multiple case-study analysis of technical problem-solving carried on in 9 small firms, eleven factors - all potentially affecting the generation of new procedural knowledge - were identified. These factors cover contextual, cognitive, and behavioural issues of technical problem-solving. As a second step of the study, data were collected relatively to 91 cases of technical problem-solving occurred in 35 small manufacturing firms in the food-equipment industry, and after generating measurements, the eleven factors were sorted according to the importance of the effect they had on the generation of knowledge performing a hierarchical stepwise regression analysis.