Using value analysis to support knowledge transfer in the multi-project setting Marco Formentini, Pietro Romano n Department of Electrical, Managerial and Mechanical Engineering (DIEGM), University of Udine, Via delle Scienze, 208, 33100 Udine, Italy article info Article history: Received 12 November 2009 Accepted 26 January 2011 Available online 19 February 2011 Keywords: Value analysis Knowledge transfer Multi-project management Action research Decision support abstract This paper investigates how formalized methodologies can effectively support the implementation of knowledge transfer practices in the multi-project setting. We propose a knowledge collection and transfer model grounded on the Value Analysis technique, empirically developed and validated through an action research in the shipbuilding industry. The proposed model facilitates decision making across multiple projects in the cruise ship design by stimulating the reuse of the available knowledge base and the exploitation of information needed to identify design solutions to solve the trade-off between functional requirements and available resources. & 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Knowledge transfer is the process through which one organi- zational unit is affected by the experience of another (Argote and Ingram, 2000). The ability to diffuse knowledge across and within organizations is today recognized as a major strategic capability for gaining competitive advantage (Van Wijk et al., 2008). To stress this concept, in a seminal article in the strategic manage- ment field Grant (1996) maintains that ‘‘the primary role of the firm, and the essence of organizational capability, is the integra- tion of knowledge’’. In other words, analyzing the firm from this knowledge-based view implies that knowledge identification, storage and sharing should lie at the core of company activities. In fact, if organizational knowledge remains inaccessible or non- integrated the value of knowledge generation and codification is diminished (Wakefield, 2004; Irani et al., 2009). However, in the literature, the focus has too often been on collecting and storing knowledge instead of reusing it, which is the ultimate goal (Roth, 2003). For instance, Van Wijk et al. (2008) maintain that after two decades of investigation in the knowledge management field, a systematic overview of the underlying mechanisms and outcomes of knowledge transfer is still lacking. As reported by Goh (2002), the absence of such understanding is particularly relevant when referring to knowledge transfer processes within organizations. This gap is recognized also by Malik (2002), who argues that actually in literature the major focus of research has concentrated on knowledge transfers outside the firm and the few provided models remain general, without elaborating on the dynamics of the intra-firm knowledge transfer processes. When considering knowledge transfers within organizations, an effective understanding of the underlying mechanisms is specifically missing in the context of project-based firms, due to their uncertainty and complexity making them different from other organizations. As argued by Ajmal and Koskinen (2008), though the benefits of knowledge transfer have long been recognized in the project-based organizations, its effectiveness is often suboptimal because knowledge created during projects is frequently misplaced. In particular, large multi-project-based firms developing complex products or systems face the simulta- neous management of multiple projects as an everyday situation and literature underlines that conventional efforts toward the effectiveness in managing single projects do not suffice in multi- project settings (Payne, 1995). In fact, when simultaneously conducting multiple projects, organizations are daily faced by a set of problems, which are either new or more complicated than those of managing individual projects. Among these problems, the primary issue is the allocation of resources between simultaneous projects (Engwall and Jerbrant, 2003). When sharing the same people and financial assets and facing strict deadlines, potential tough competition could arise between projects, and this in turn could lead to an ongoing game of negotiations concerning access to available resources and the allocation of certain individuals to specific projects. Moreover project interdependencies can nega- tively affect the development of interconnected projects in terms of scheduling, due to delays of one project which can propagate to the others. Simultaneous projects usually share not only financial and human resources, but also common knowledge. For this Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpe Int. J. Production Economics 0925-5273/$ - see front matter & 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2011.01.023 n Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0432 558246; fax +39 0432 558298. E-mail addresses: marco.formentini@uniud.it (M. Formentini), pietro.romano@uniud.it (P. Romano). Int. J. Production Economics 131 (2011) 545–560