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Literature - Suddaby & Greenwood, 2001 - Commodification & Colonisation

4 important questions on Literature - Suddaby & Greenwood, 2001 - Commodification & Colonisation

What does commodification entail?

When an expert develops a model that was successful and then commodifies, by taking it out of its context, to use it for similar challenges, thus decontextualising managerial knowledge to leverage it in the market place.

What does colonisation of knowledge entail?

Migrating knowledge into new territories. Here actors seek 'intellectual' space to deal with competition following commodification.

What do companies that partake in colonisation of knowledge seek to do?

Knowledge producers seek to extend life-cycle of their products.

What two points does commodification, making management knowledge into a product, give a company in terms of competitive advantage?

Allows firm to 'leverage' their knowledge product: hiring a large number of junior professionals at lower cost than the revenue they generate AND management practice becomes transparent and easily understood for juniors;
Codifying, abstracting and translating knowledge makes managerial practice more portable resulting in predictable and uniform practice to clients.