Sharing Knowledge Across Generations and Its Impact on Innovation

Abstract

The next generation (NG) is vital to securing a thriving wine industry. We argue that knowledge sharing affects innovation in family winegrowing businesses, and that the NG brings new knowledge to the family business more likely to lead to radical new innovation. This is contrary to the typical view that the senior generation (SG) is the source of all the valuable knowledge, which must be passed on to the NG. As a traditional industry with a large share of family businesses, winegrowing has a heritage of innovation. Individuals in the family business and their ability to innovate over generations is essential for adaption, competitiveness, and ultimately survival. Using Nonaka and Takeuchi’s SECI (socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization) model as a lens, we explore the knowledge creation and innovation outcomes of two-way or “bidirectional” knowledge sharing. Through this lens, we seek to understand how knowledge is shared and utilized within an intergenerational family winegrowing business. We then go further by exploring the impact each generation has on innovation, highlighting the NG as a primary source of new knowledge. We conclude with guidelines for managers in family businesses who aspire to improve innovation outcomes by enabling bidirectional knowledge sharing.