Sticky Knowledge

von Hippel described information “costly to acquire, transfer, and use” as sticky. Organizations may have the motivation to reduce stickiness based on the frequency of transfer of the information. von Hippel suggested the focus should be on the cost of transferring knowledge in a usable form to the receiver, rather than just bringing the knowledge to the attention of the receiver. Szulanski concurred, indicating a definition of stickiness should include consideration of the nature of both the sender and the receiver of the knowledge. Stickiness can refer to both the characteristics of a particular transfer situation and the characteristics of the knowledge transferred. The more complex the knowledge transfer, the stickier the transfer.