IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ijecbs/v12y2005i2p193-209.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the Benefits of Withholding Knowledge in Organizations

Author

Listed:
  • Matthias Krakel

Abstract

Transferring knowledge to an agent makes him more successful or productive, which is beneficial for the principal. However, knowledge transfer also increases the agent's outside option. I identify two reasons for withholding knowledge — to reduce labor costs within a principal-agent relationship, and to weaken the agent in case of a separation. Moreover, the role of synergy is discussed both for building up a principal-agent relationship and for transferring knowledge. While synergy is decisive for knowledge transfer, cooperation between the principal and agent may even take place in the absence of synergy. Furthermore, I analyze whether the principal is more likely to transfer knowledge to a more able or to a less able agent. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of a noncompetition clause are briefly discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Krakel, 2005. "On the Benefits of Withholding Knowledge in Organizations," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 193-209.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:12:y:2005:i:2:p:193-209
    DOI: 10.1080/13571510500127493
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13571510500127493
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13571510500127493?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hans Gersbach & Armin Schmutzler, 2003. "Endogenous spillovers and incentives to innovate," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 21(1), pages 59-79, January.
    2. Raghuram G. Rajan & Luigi Zingales, 2001. "The Firm as a Dedicated Hierarchy: A Theory of the Origins and Growth of Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(3), pages 805-851.
    3. Pakes, Ariel & Nitzan, Shmuel, 1983. "Optimum Contracts for Research Personnel, Research Employment, and the Establishment of "Rival" Enterprises," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(4), pages 345-365, October.
    4. Hans Gersbach & Armin Schmutzler, 2003. "Endogenous Technological Spillovers: Causes and Consequences," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 179-205, June.
    5. Stewart, Geoff, 1994. "Capitalists and workers: Knowledge and the strategic role of investment within the firm," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 1779-1797, December.
    6. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, April.
    7. Arora, Ashish, 1996. "Contracting for tacit knowledge: the provision of technical services in technology licensing contracts," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 233-256, August.
    8. Gonzalez-Maestre, Miguel & Lopez-Cunat, Javier, 2001. "Delegation and mergers in oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1263-1279, September.
    9. Morton I. Kamien & Israel Zang, 1990. "The Limits of Monopolization Through Acquisition," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(2), pages 465-499.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Moore, Fiona, 2012. "Identity, knowledge and strategy in the UK subsidiary of an Anglo-German automobile manufacturer," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 281-292.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto, 2008. "Intellectual property rights and efficient firm organization," Economics Working Papers 1254, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised May 2014.
    2. Colombo, Luca & Dawid, Herbert, 2016. "Complementary assets, start-ups and incentives to innovate," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 177-190.
    3. Jarle Moen, 2005. "Is Mobility of Technical Personnel a Source of R&D Spillovers?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(1), pages 81-114, January.
    4. Nilssen, Tore & Sorgard, Lars, 1998. "Sequential horizontal mergers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 1683-1702, November.
    5. Marini, Marco A., 2006. "The value of a new idea: knowledge transmission, workers’ mobility and market structure," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 697-706.
    6. Luca Colombo & Herbert Dawid & Kordian Kabus, 2012. "When do thick venture capital markets foster innovation? An evolutionary analysis," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 79-108, January.
    7. Fosfuri, Andrea & Rønde, Thomas, 2003. "High-Tech Clusters, Technology Spillovers and Trade Secret Laws," CEPR Discussion Papers 4130, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Dan Bernhardt & Vladimir Dvoracek, 2009. "Preservation Of Trade Secrets And Multinational Wage Premia," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(4), pages 726-738, October.
    9. John S. Heywood & Zheng Wang, 2016. "Strategic delegation under spatial price discrimination," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95, pages 193-213, March.
    10. Mason, Robin & Weeds, Helen, 2013. "Merger policy, entry, and entrepreneurship," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 23-38.
    11. Motta, Massimo & Rønde, Thomas, 2002. "Trade secret laws, labor mobility, and innovations," Working Papers 08-2002, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    12. Kräkel, Matthias & Sliwka, Dirk, 2006. "Should You Allow Your Agent to Become Your Competitor? On Non-Compete Agreements in Employment Contracts," Bonn Econ Discussion Papers 4/2006, University of Bonn, Bonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE).
    13. Colombo, Luca & Dawid, Herbert & Piva, Mariacristina & Vivarelli, Marco, 2013. "Does Easy Start-Up Formation Hamper Incumbents' R&D Investment? A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 7302, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. HansK. Hvide, 2009. "The Quality of Entrepreneurs," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(539), pages 1010-1035, July.
    15. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Duranton, Gilles, 2006. "Labour pooling, labour poaching, and spatial clustering," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 1-28, January.
    16. Gürtler, Oliver & Kräkel, Matthias, 2006. "Mergers, Litigation and Efficiency," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 185, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    17. Emilie Dargaud, 2007. "Active firms in horizontal mergers and cartel stability," Post-Print halshs-00164900, HAL.
    18. Emilie Dargaud, 2005. "Monopolization through acquisitions in a differentiated product industry," Working Papers 0507, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    19. repec:wsr:wpaper:y:2013:i:117 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Steffen Ziss, 2005. "Horizontal Mergers and Successive Oligopoly," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 99-114, June.
    21. Mialon, Sue H., 2008. "Efficient horizontal mergers: The effects of internal capital reallocation and organizational form," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 861-877, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Competition; Incentives; Knowledge Transfer; Limited Liability; Organizations; JEL Classifications: J3; M5;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • M5 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:12:y:2005:i:2:p:193-209. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CIJB20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.