Price Mechanism for Knowledge Transfer: An Integrative Theory.

Author List: HUANG, MING-HUI; Wang, Eric T. G.; Seidmann, Abraham;
Journal of Management Information Systems, 2007, Volume 24, Issue 3, Page 79-108.
Knowledge transferred in the open market via a price mechanism enjoys the benefits of avoiding internal competition, learning from external competitors, and accumulating diversified knowledge. In the market, users can access a repository of knowledge for a single price (repository pricing) or knowledge items in the repository can be sold individually (knowledge pricing). However, users have been found to prefer repository pricing but not the knowledge in the repository. This irrationality can cause market failure because users derive a suboptimal level of utility from the knowledge repository, and vendors have contradictory pricing and knowledge strategies. We empirically examine a joint explanation from two competing theoretical perspectives that accounts for this inconsistency nicely: The mental accounting perspective endorses repository pricing because it entices users with the benefits of the whole repository, whereas the transaction decoupling perspective finds expression in individually priced knowledge because it prevents the discrete benefit of knowledge from becoming obscure. By integrating the two theoretical perspectives and considering price, knowledge, and user characteristics simultaneously, the results offer important implications for the market transfer of knowledge. Repository pricing attracts users and is essential to initiate the transfer process, whereas knowledge pricing generates knowledge preference and is thus an effective approach for learning.
Keywords: knowledge market;knowledge pricing;knowledge transfer;mental accounting;multinomial logit model;ordered logit model;transaction decoupling
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List of Topics

#245 0.206 knowledge sharing contribution practice electronic expertise individuals repositories management technical repository knowledge-sharing shared contributors novelty features peripheral share benefit seekers
#195 0.133 pricing services levels level on-demand different demand capacity discrimination mechanism schemes conditions traffic paper resource expected based constraints solution latency
#284 0.102 users user new resistance likely benefits potential perspective status actual behavior recognition propose user's social associated existing base using acceptance
#2 0.091 leadership leaders effective leader roles authority assume slow responsibility structure recognize responsibilities look size inevitable attain trend held articulate dominate
#144 0.087 knowledge transfer management technology creation organizational process tacit research study organization processes work organizations implications practice explicit models consultants transfers
#41 0.072 price prices dispersion spot buying good transaction forward retailers commodity pricing collected premium customers using posted relatively obtain listing uncertainty
#242 0.070 market competition competitive network markets firms products competing competitor differentiation advantage competitors presence dominant structure share using incumbent make important
#282 0.050 power perspective process study rational political perspectives politics theoretical longitudinal case social rationality formation construction shows multiple instead understanding fact