Developing the concept of knowledge leakage in relation to UK productivity

This project arises from an EPSRC Ideas Factory convened to examine the nature and origins of the UK productivity gap in conjunction with the Advanced Institute of Management (AIM). The initiative brought together researchers from a wide range of disciplines. The proposal combines expertise at the macro-economic level with detailed company and sector level insights from the engineering and construction participants to develop the concept of knowledge leakage and investigate its impact on UK productivity. Knowledge leakage is introduced as mechanisms through which information or knowledge that is critical to an organisation is lost or ‘leaked’. The concept of knowledge leakage is discussed through a review of literature from numerous disciplines and the relationship between knowledge leakage and the UK productivity gap is examined. The results from an initial scoping study are presented in two sections; Firstly notions of what knowledge is critical to organisations is presented; Secondly the impact of HR, culture, trust and supply chain relationships, among other concepts, on the potential for knowledge leakage is discussed.