University-Industry Collaborative Innovation: an extension of Activity Theory

The subject of knowledge, its generation, replication and dissemination remains a key subject of debate and a source of potential competitive advantage for organisations. Despite an established and still growing corpus of literature the subject remains fundamentally problematic for researchers and practitioners alike.
Adopting the concept of ‘knowledge as knowing’ this research adopts an Activity Theory investigation of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships between a university in the United Kingdom and three organisations in the public and private sectors.
Through an extended period of immersion in each operational environment the study identifies the nature of the tensions that beset the micro-relations between individuals in the Partnerships that challenge the efficacious transfer of knowledge. The research concludes by proffering an extension to the Activity Framework in order to explicitly recognise the dimension of ‘Tacit Skills’ that are necessary for the performance of work, and thereby the transfer and utilization of knowledge.