Developing a Brokering Capacity within the Firm. The Enactment of Market Knowledge

Is market knowledge really useful to advance innovation and why are some companies better at using market knowledge to generate innovation than others? This paper addresses this issue conceptually, building on the assumption that it is distribution and usage of market knowledge which makes the difference in innovative competition. We build on two different streams of research: market orientation and market knowledge, and knowledge brokering. We show why the emergence of internal market knowledge brokers may enhance the opportunity of innovation for organizations. We distinguish four different types of internal brokers. This distinction is related to the typology of knowledge to be transferred between two internal parties and the cognitive distance between these parties. Conclusions and implication are drawn on how companies should manage these figures of internal brokers in order to favor the distribution and the usage of market knowledge on the edge of innovation.