20228: Nonaka’s Knowledge Creation Theory Revisited: Taking Stock and Looking into the Future

Sunday, July 27, 2025

12:00 - 13:30 CEST (GMT+2)

Location: Bella Center: Hall B- B0-m2

Session Type: Symposium (panel)
Orientation: Research
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/D8E3gA

Organizer(s)

CH

Christina Hoon

Bielefeld U., Germany

Facilitator(s)

AB

Alina McCandless Baluch

U. of St Andrews Business School, United Kingdom

Panelist(s)

AN

Ayano Nishihara

Rikkyo University
TO

Toshiya Ozaki

Rikkyo University, Japan
TA

Torben Juul Andersen

Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
SH

Stefan Haefliger

Bayes Business School, United Kingdom
DB

Dermot Breslin

Rennes School of Business, France
GS

Gabriel Szulanski

INSEAD, Singapore
ML

Miikka J. Lehtonen

Rikkyo University, Japan

Knowledge creation theory has developed rapidly and received broad attention in organizational and management scholarship over the last 30 years (Nonaka, 1991; Nishihara, Matsunaga, Nonaka, & Yokomichi, 2017; Nonaka, von Krogh, & Voelpel, 2006). Scholars have explored how knowledge emerges, spreads, and is used, within private organizations but also within public organizations and nonprofit organizations (NPO) in and across various contexts and cultures (southeast Asia, Japan, US, Europe) (e.g., Nonaka, Nishihara, & Kawada, 2018; Hedlund & Nonaka, 1993). This theory views organisations as knowledge-creating entities and their ability to responsively manage and promote their knowledge creating processes is key to innovation and successes. This symposium seeks to re-examine and advance and update Nonaka’s knowledge creation theory to better account for the multi-faceted, concurrent challenges that organizations face in the globalized VUCA world in the Anthropocene epoch. It aims to develop scholarship and to build new insights by exploring: i) the foundational elements of knowledge creation in the dynamic and diverse contexts of generative AI and man-machine interfaces; ii) the applications of Nonaka's SECI model in global, multinational organizations where cross-border members may not necessarily share the same level of tacit knowledge; iii) the interrelated roles of knowledge, leadership styles and “ba” across the changing social fabric of organizations; iv) and the methodological opportunities and challenges and empirical for research in interdisciplinary fields. In this symposium, we want to stimulate discussion about fruitful areas to advance the theory of knowledge creation as well as to open up for and inspire new theoretical developments and insights.