The role of tacit knowledge in innovation processes, The view of codification and integration versus the perpetuation of tacitness

From the perspective of the Resource Based View and most of the modern theories of management and the firm business organizations can be considered as depositories of knowledge or cognitive systems themselves. According to this view, firms exist because they solve the cognitive problem of information processing more efficiently than the individual, and knowledge is considered embodied in the organizations themselves, in their programs and routines, culture, memory and resources. The aim of the paper is to investigate the legitimacy of the role of a particular kind of knowledge in innovation processes: the tacit knowledge involved in R&D and production activities. The focus is on understanding the generation, integration and codification of this type of knowledge during innovation processes.