**Author details**

*Current Issues in Knowledge Management*

competence [7].

**5. Conclusions**

which is a strategic advantage for the company.

useful for innovation strategies.

they have. Individuals not only know what to do but also know how and when to apply that knowledge to achieve organizational goals. Specific attention is required for collaborators in order to generate knowledge externally because they build the blocks of all knowledge-based organizational and social development [36]. Regarding Hypothesis 3, results show that internal knowledge creation is explained by organizational factors for both Mexican firms (B = 0.356) and foreign firms (B = 0.610), having a higher impact in foreign firms operating in Mexico. For internal knowledge creation activities, organizational factors predominate over individual skills. This is similar to that "an organization cannot create knowledge without individuals who generate it, while the business must provide the right environment for individuals to create knowledge" [25]. The relevant point here is how management style and organizational culture promote thinking differently and facilitate and encourage learning new things and thinking "out of the box" [7]. Hypothesis 4 is partially supported by a coefficient of 0.403 for Mexican firms compared to foreign firms, without a significant coefficient. This points out that Mexican firms create knowledge inside the organization supported by organization factors as well as individual skills compared to foreign firms in Mexico which create knowledge only by organizational factors. It could be addressed to Mexican firms to support their knowledge generation on collaborators skills. Collaborators could be motivated to learn by themselves because they have the opportunity to do so, but that is not enough to create new knowledge that results in organizational innovation. Our research also addressed the aspect of firms' need to empower their people to create and support the development of their knowledge generation

In this study, the authors built and validated a model that identified which organizational factors and individual skills influence knowledge generation, external acquisition, and internal creation of knowledge. Given the reality that today's economy is largely knowledge-based, there is a substantial need for companies to favor the generation of knowledge. The knowledge generated within the organization is especially valuable because it tends to be unique and specific and have a large tacit component. This is what makes it more difficult to be imitated by competitors,

Organizations must be able to identify both external and internal knowledge generation activities. The challenge is to build systems that collect the new knowledge acquired during projects and ongoing activities with external partners and, once that value is created inside organization, to capture that knowledge in a

database or document and then to spread it throughout the entire organization to be

Regarding managerial implications, managers have to be able to identify what particular external and internal activities support the knowledge generation process in their organization and what organizational elements and individual skills are crucial. For strategy and growth purposes, organizations are not necessarily locked into internally controlled skills and resources but may draw upon external knowledge (e.g., customers) as sources of new ideas and problem-solving capabilities and for flexibility in the assimilation of new skills and resources [37]. The present study results suggest that a learning-oriented organization is key to generate knowledge to foster innovation. The results also imply that more relevant than the identification of external and internal activities to generate knowledge is the need to develop strategic initiatives that systematically promote this process, with a highly involvement of collaborators.

**28**

Laura Zapata-Cantú EGADE Business School, Tecnológico de Monterrey, San Pedro Garza García, Mexico

\*Address all correspondence to: laura.zapata@tec.mx

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
