Themes, Streams, and Lenses in Knowledge Transfer Research

Knowledge transfer (KT) is a well-established research field that can be examined through various themes, streams, and lenses. This bibliometric study aims to identify the fundamental components of these three areas in KT research by analyzing 103 papers from the Web of Science (WoS) using a combined conceptual and intellectual structure analysis in Biblioshiny. Four central themes were identified: performance & management, innovation, absorptive capacity (AC), and capabilities. The co-occurrence network analysis revealed strong connections between these themes, with the strongest link between management and innovation. Four theoretical streams were identified: paradox stream, capability stream, AC stream, and IT stream. The first three streams are rooted in organizational learning theory, and the IT stream is based on knowledge management (KM) theory. The historiographic analysis uncovered four lenses commonly employed in KT research: agent-based, mechanism-based, relational-based, and routine-based lenses. These lenses provide different perspectives for analyzing KT processes at various organizational levels. However, this bibliometric study highlights that KT is strongly linked to organizational learning theory and can be viewed as a process that is analyzable within identified themes, streams, and lenses. It contributes to the KT field by facilitating the alignment of knowledge across diverse themes, streams, and lenses, thus enabling a more profound understanding of the KT domain.