**CROs tend to rely on experience sharing as a major approach for implementing knowledge flow and acquisition.**

### **Case illustration:**

The project team members of IQVIA organize monthly meetings for experience sharing and learning from one another. The company also builds "buddy" and "mentor" systems, with junior employees as the former and senior employees as the latter, to facilitate knowledge diffusion. PRA employees rely more on informal channels for consultation with experienced colleagues for knowledge learning. Through the knowledge exchange process, new knowledge can be created. Both FBTC and A2HC emphasize "on-job-training" for training new employees and those in new positions to be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills for new jobs as soon as possible. A2HC also holds workshops for new employee training and quick learning.

### **Discussion:**

From the case study results, we can conclude that CROs use mentoring systems to assist new and junior employees to learn from senior and experienced employees. The major experiences of CROs' employees may include communication skills with hospitals (mainly medical doctors and nurses) and contractors (biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies), accumulated knowledge about clinical trials, and analytical skills from the clinical trial data check. The characteristics of this type of tacit knowledge are regarded as different from those based on information systems and databases [20].
