Developing New Knowledge at Nike

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Developing new knowledge at Nike 1. Over the years, Nike has showed to have taken advantage of different types and forms of knowledge at the different stages of its growth. According to the definition put forward by Davenport and Prusack, knowledge originates from experience, values, information and expertise. However, we have to distinguish knowledge of resources from future knowledge. At the beginning phase of Nike the most determining success factor was the tacit knowledge available, in an athletic context, about the needs that need to be satisfied in the market (making lighter running shoes). This is particularly important because it was the main driver for Nike to start operating in the market of running shoes. The second but also equally important type of knowledge evident from the case also refers to tacit knowledge and is related to the search for the best shoe manufacturer. This is tacit knowledge because it is knowledge that he was able to acquire through experience and self will. As the theoretical definition states – this type of knowledge is context specific. In this case we are shown many other types of tacit knowledge that helped the development of Nike. These include the movement of its original manufacturing processes to Taiwan and Korea, where Knight knew he could cut costs and increase profits. Also, in a later phase of Nike, his knowledge of competition behavior, as well as the way in which he would battle competitors by increasing innovation. Although these were important examples of tacit knowledge that helped Nike grow, we are able to see the importance of this type of knowledge in relation to explicit knowledge by concluding that what really lifted Nike to the limelight was its marketing strategies by sponsoring football teams as well as using Michael Jordan as its main icon. Of course we can argue that Reebok tried to copy

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