Welcome to a Score Lecture on Organization! After the lecture, refreshments will be served.
Date: Thursday 9 October 2025
Time: 15.00 – 16.30
Location: Score, Frescativägen 14 A, Stockholm University
Rejuventing an aging horse: Knowledge transfer theories in organization studies and the need for retheorizing the field
Kjell Arne Røvik, Professor, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
This lecture explores the complexities of knowledge transfer across organizations, emphasizing its critical role in organizational success and the challenges it faces. Four decades of research has focused on barriers and enablers such as organizational structure,
absorptive capacity, social networks, and geographical, cultural, and institutional distances – hopefully to identify an X-factor with high explanatory power. However, these approaches fail to fully explain variations in knowledge transfer outcomes. Røvik
advocates for retheorizing the field – a shift towards a translation theory which views knowledge transfer as acts of translation involving de-contextualization and contextualization. He introduces three translation modes—reproducing, modifying, and radical—each
with appurtenant translation rules, and highlights the importance of translators' performance and translation competence in determining outcomes. Case studies illustrate how translation modes and rules influence success or failure, and thus, may explain variations
in knowledge transfer outcomes.
The lecture will be held in English.
Places are limited, please register!
Link to registration:
https://score_lecture_2025.eventbrite.co.uk
www.score.su.se
