Knowledge in four deformation dimensions

Abstract

This paper sketches out a complexity conceptualization of knowledge. Building from evolutionary theories, it defines knowledge as rules that reduce environmental uncertainty through connections between ideas and facts. Following, knowledge is conceived as a structure validated through action, a process contextualized in individual experience and a system contextualized in social and cultural experience. Knowledge exhibits four characteristics of of a complex system: it is ensitive to initial conditions, it exhibits multiple feedback loops, it is non-linear, and recursively symmetrical Four inter-dependent deformation dimensions of knowledge are identified (personal, common, tacit, and explicit) and their interactions are discussed. This conceptualization of knowledge as a complex system contributes to the knowledge-based theory of the firm by providing some micro-foundations to organizational knowledge, and it opens the opportunity to re-think theories about communities of practice, entrepreneurship and firm creation, the role of managers, and knowledge management.