Protecting knowledge versus sharing knowledge

WBS Associate Professor of Strategic Management Michael Mol's jointly-authored research paper 'Does Strategic Protection of Knowledge Undermine the Effectiveness of External Knowledge Sourcing?' is examined in an article on Knowledge@Wharton.

Authors Felipe Monteiro of Wharton, Michael Mol, and Julian Birkinshaw of London Business School investigate what happens if firms use organizational procedures to strategically protect their own knowledge but at the same time have an external knowledge sourcing strategy aimed at gaining knowledge from others.

They conclude that "Knowledge access and strategic knowledge protection are not isolated. They interfere with each other, and in certain situations this interference can undermine the benefits of open innovation."