The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation (Hardcover)

~ Ikujiro Nonaka (Author), Hirotaka Takeuchi (Author) "Japanese companies remain an enigma to most Westerners..." (more)
Key Phrases: organization cannot create knowledge, kneading skill, hypertext organization, United States, Urgent Project, Honda City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This book addresses the generation-old question of why the Japanese are so successful in business. The authors, professors of management at Hitosubashi University, contend that Japanese firms are successful because they are innovative, that is, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. They identify two types of organizational knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in procedures and manuals, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience. U.S. managers tend to focus on explicit knowledge and stress approaches such as benchmarking, while the Japanese focus on tacit knowledge. Using corporate examples such as Honda, NEC, Nissan, 3M, and GE, the authors provide insights that reveal how to blend the best of both worlds. This scholarly volume is highly recommended not only for academics (especially in organizational theory) but also for readers doing business in and with Japan.?Joseph W. Leonard, Miami Univ., Oxford, Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A fascinating, exciting exposure to a new way of thinking about the knowledge-based company....Provides a model of knowledge creation that will be a touchstone of future work in this field....This important, imaginative book will challenge and intrigue managers and management scholars alike."--D. Eleanor Westney, MIT Sloan School of Management in the Sloan Management Review
"A fascinating volume that will interest philosophers, managers, and more common readers....The analyses are so thorough that they make the one- and two-page descriptions in Forbes magazine seem like elementary fairy stories. The authors have done their research well and provide delightful details."--Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Knowledge creation is to the 90s what excellence was to the 80s. I can't imagine a better book on organizational design for innovation. Nor can I imagine a better common focus for managers and scholars. This is the best and most original blend of organizational theory and practice we are likely to see for some time."--Karl E. Weick, University of Michigan School of Business Administration
"This is the most creative book on management to come out of Japan. The same authors who introduced the rugby approach to new product development, now bring us a myriad of new concepts: tacit knowledge, the oneness of mind and body, middle-up-down management, hypertext organization, to name a few. The insights for this book originated in Japan, but the managerial implications are universal. It is a must read for managers competing in the borderless world."--Kenichi Ohmae, Ohmae & Associates
"Nonaka and Takeuchi take on a subject that is truly on the frontier of management: the process by which companies learn and create competitively valuable knowledge. What is refreshing about this book is that Nonaka and Takeuchi go beyond the slogans that have characterized much of the previous work on this subject, and delve into the specific organization structures and processes involved in organizational creativity and learning. They bring a wealth of specific, in-depth company evidence to bear on the task. The result is an important book which will advance both the literature as well as corporate practice."--Michael E. Porter, C. Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (May 18, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195092694
• ISBN-13: 978-0195092691
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #175,313 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great source for understanding knowledge creation., December 3, 1999

By	Charles Bearden (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

According to authors, the goal of The Knowledge Creating Company was to (1) construct a new theory if organizational knowledge creation; (2) to provide a new explanation of why certain companies are successful at continuous innovation; and (3) develop a universal management model that converges management practices found in Japan and in the West. In my opinion Nonaka and Takeuchi did an excellent job in all three areas! The presentation of topics is clear and well written. I found chapter 3, Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation, highly insightful, particularly in the discussion of the Two Dimensions of Organizational Knowledge - epistemological and ontological, and the Four Modes of Knowledge Conversion - socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization.

Drawing from companies such as Honda, Canon, 3M, and GE the authors effectively and convincingly use real world examples to demonstrate organizational knowledge creation.

Nonaka and Takeuchi also provide an in-depth view of Western and Japanese dichotomies and how "synthesis" of both philosophies' can create new solutions.

The Knowledge Creating Company is an excellent resource for Organizational Theory and Strategic Management students or anyone with an interest in how knowledge is created in Japanese and Western companies.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEWARE! Digital version is only a 10 page summary!, March 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Knowledge-Creating Company (Digital)

Don't get caught like I did.

16 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Japanese Context...Global Relevance, November 16, 2000

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

There are already so many excellent books now available on this subject. What sets this one apart is suggested by its subtitle: "How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation." Decades ago, Japanese executives embraced and acted upon Deming's ideas about TQM. Only after many years later was Deming properly appreciated by corporate leaders in the United States. The same cannot be said about knowledge management (KM) and its most prominent advocates in the United States, such as Peter Senge. Nonetheless, there is much of value we can learn about KM from the Japanese.

According to the authors, "the success of Japanese companies is not due to their manufacturing process; access to cheap capital; close and cooperative relationships with customers, suppliers, and government agencies; or lifetime employment, seniority system, and other human resources management practices....Instead, we make the claim that Japanese companies have been successful because of their skills and expertise at `organizational knowledge creation'. By organizational knowledge creation, we mean the capability of a company as a whole to create new knowledge, disseminate it throughout the organization, and embody it in products, services, and systems."

The material is carefully organized and developed within eight chapters:

1. Introduction to Knowedge in organizations

2. Knowledge and Management

3. Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation

4. Creating Knowledge in Practice

5. Middle-up-down Management Practice

6. A New Organizational Structure

7. Global Organizational Knowledge Creation

8. Managerial and Theoretical Implications

The chapters which I found most thought-provoking are 1, 3, and 8 but all are valuable. I agree with the authors that innovation can be (and is) achieved "by continuously creating new knowledge, disseminating it widely through the organization, and embodying it quickly in new technologies, products, and systems." I further agree that knowledge-creation "is no longer an enigma. ..[nor is the] process endemic to Japanese companies. It is universal." Leaders of any organization (regardless of its size, nature, or national identity) can derive great benefit from this book, one whose primary models and benchmarks may be limited to companies in only one country but whose relevance is indeed "universal."